UNN scholar maintains first place on index journal

A Mass Communication lecturer at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Dr Gever Verlumun has maintained his position as Nigeria’s number one communication scholar based on the number of his publications in Scopus-indexed journals.

Recent data from Scopus Scival author ranking of the top 500 scholars in Nigeria, which was last updated on 7th January 2024 considered the publication for 2020-2023 in journals that are indexed in Scopus, which is a large database for indexing journals.

Scopus is a globally recognised indexing and citation database that evaluates and indexes publications like journals, books, and conferences. Journals that are indexed in Scopus are regarded as complying with the highest global research standards, and authors who publish in such journals are seen as scholarly sound.  Scival is a research analytics tool from Elsevier that measures the metrics gathered from the Scopus dataset. It provides information on the research output of scholars, and it contributes to university ranking.

Last year, Verlumun ranked No. 161 among the top 500 scholars in Nigeria but number one among communication scholars. In this year’s ranking, he moved from 161 to 91 and maintained his position as the number one communication scholar.

Dr Destiny Apuke of Taraba State University, Jalingo, was number 492 and the second communication scholar in Nigeria. This year, Apuke moved to 220 and still maintained his position as Nigeria’s number two communication scholar. This year, Associated Professor Felix Talabi of Redeemers’ University, Ede, joined the list as number 469, making him the third communication scholar in Nigeria.

Another remarkable change on the list was that Prof. Isaac Fayomi, of Bells University of Technology, Ogun State who was the number one scholar in Nigeria last year has been displaced by a medical Professor, Viroj Wiwanitit of Joseph Ayobabalola University,  Ikeji-Arakeji, Osun State. This year, Isaac ranks number  12. Overall, the list of top 500 scholars in Nigeria is dominated by scholars in the sciences with their counterparts in arts, social, and management sciences having less representation on the list. Previously, communication scholars were not represented on the list at all until last year when Verlumun and Destiny broke the jinx.