Research

Top citations and online, media engagement showcase SFU’s exceptional research contributions in 2025

January 14, 2026

by Heather Sanders

Prolific SFU research—measured through Scopus citations, Altmetric engagement, and readership in The Conversation Canada—demonstrates the global reach of SFU scholars and innovators.

Every day, SFU scholars engage in invaluable work that enhances the social, cultural, environmental, and economic landscape of our communities.

We can measure research impact in a number of ways, including through citations and engagement with scholarship through traditional and social media.

We can also measure the research dollars raised. SFU is one of Canada's fastest growing research-intensive universities with sponsored research income growing by 144 per cent in a decade to $286 million last year.

“Congratulations to all SFU scholars for your amazing work in 2025. Every day, I am impressed with the growing reach of your research, the life-changing impacts of your innovative ideas, and your strong commitment to advancing knowledge for the greater good. We can all be proud of the significant progress we have made in 2025 and look forward to further innovation and engagement in 2026.”

– Dugan O’Neil, vice-president research and innovation

As we reflect on the accomplishments of 2025, we are proud to share some of SFU’s top research articles.

Top cited scholars in the Scopus database for 2025

What is Scopus? Scopus is an abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and web sources with tools to track, analyze and visualize research. Scopus provides access to a broad portfolio of peer-reviewed content from around the world.

These top-cited articles are from the field-weighted citation impact (FWCI) list, which considers the differences in research behaviour across disciplines.

According to Scopus, fields like medicine and biochemistry typically produce more output with more co-authors and longer reference lists than researchers working in the social sciences. The methodology of FWCI accounts for these disciplinary differences.

Top 20 SFU scholar citations in Scopus*

	SFU Authors	SFU Faculties	Title	Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1	Rosalie Tung	Beedie School of Business	A multipolar geo-strategy for international business	82.77
	Rosalie Tung	Beedie School of Business	How to intelligently embrace generative AI: the first guardrails for the use of GenAI in IB research	45.63
2	Bernd Stelzer, Matthias Danninger, Michel Vetterli	Faculty of Science	Software and computing for Run 3 of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC	31.24
3	Jean-Christophe Belisle-Pipon	Faculty of Health Sciences	Reporting guideline for the use of Generative Artificial intelligence tools in MEdical Research: The GAMER Statement	28.45
	Rosalie Tung	Beedie School of Business	Microfoundations as a toolkit for international business research	27.38
4	Tania Bubela	Faculty of Health Sciences	Delphi-driven consensus definition for mesenchymal stromal cells and clinical reporting guidelines for mesenchymal stromal cell–based therapeutics	26.92
5	Bruce Lanphear	Faculty of Health Sciences	Time to Reassess Systemic Fluoride Exposure, Again	26.86
6	Kirsten Zickfeld	Faculty of Environment	Geological Net Zero and the need for disaggregated accounting for carbon sinks	25.01
7	Yasutaka Furukawa	Faculty of Applied Sciences	MapTracker: Tracking with Strided Memory Fusion for Consistent Vector HD Mapping	23.01
8	Hasina Samji	Faculty of Health Sciences	Positive childhood experiences serve as protective factors for mental health in pandemic-era youth with adverse childhood experiences	22.69
9	Ron Wakkary	Faculty of Communication, Art & Technology	Unmaking and HCI: Techniques, Technologies, Materials, and Philosophies beyond Making	21.26
10	Jason Peng	Faculty of Applied Sciences	Generating Human Interaction Motions in Scenes with Text Control	20.92
11	Levon Pogosian	Faculty of Science	The CosmoVerse White Paper: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics	20.14
12	Brent McFerran	Beedie School of Business	Diversity representation in advertising	19.84
13	Bing Lu	Faculty of Environment	Using UAV-based multispectral and RGB imagery to monitor above-ground biomass of oat-based diversified cropping	17.74
14	Yasutaka Furukawa	Faculty of Applied Sciences	MVDiffusion++: A Dense High-Resolution Multi-view Diffusion Model for Single or Sparse-View 3D Object Reconstruction	16.74
	Jason Peng	Faculty of Applied Sciences	Reinforcement learning for versatile, dynamic, and robust bipedal locomotion control	16.43
15	Alissa Antle	Faculty of Communication, Art & Tech	Critical Artificial Intelligence literacy: A scoping review and framework synthesis	15.74
16	Nancy Forde	Faculty of Science	AGEing of collagen: The effects of glycation on collagen's stability, mechanics and assembly	14.37
17	Carl Lowenberger	Faculty of Science	Long-Term Exposure to Lambda-Cyhalothrin Reveals Novel Genes Potentially Involved in Aedes aegypti Insecticide Resistance	13.58
18	Julia Smith	Faculty of Health Sciences	Faith and vaccination: a scoping review of the relationships between religious beliefs and vaccine hesitancy	13.05
19	Chelsey Geralda Armstrong	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	Ethnoecological perspectives on environmental stewardship: Tenets and basis of reciprocity in Gitxsan and nłeʔkepmx (Nlaka'pamux) Territories	12.48
20	Kora DeBeck, Kanna Hayashi	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; Faculty of Health Sciences	Longitudinal polysubstance use patterns and non-fatal overdose: A repeated measures latent class analysis	12.27

* Please note: In order to celebrate 20 faculty members, some scholars appear more than once. Many of these publications include SFU students and non-SFU authors as well. To view the full list of authors, please visit the link to each article. These data were pulled December 1, 2025 and do not reflect work published after that date.

SFU’s top 20 scholars on traditional and social media

What is Altmetric? Altmetric is part of the Digital Science portfolio of companies and is used by SFU to track online engagement and research impact.

The Altmetric attention score is a measure of the online attention a research output receives, based on sources like news articles, Wikipedia mentions, policy documents and social media posts.

SFU uses the Altmetric database to capture metrics and qualitative data that are complementary to the traditional, citation-based metrics captured in Scopus. Altmetric scores pull data from traditional and social media globally.

Altmetric’s attention score represents a weighted count of mentions in traditional and nontraditional media platforms for a specific research output.

According to Altmetric, as of December 15, 2025, SFU research stories were featured this year in 2,905 news stories by 2,166 unique news outlets in 55 countries.

The top three international media stories were:

Top 20 SFU authors by Altmetric Attention Score*

	SFU Authors	SFU Faculties	Title	Altmetric Attention Score
1	Bruce Lanphear	Faculty of Health Sciences	Time to Reassess Systemic Fluoride Exposure, Again	1,155
2	Michael Richards	Faculty of Environment	Ancient host-associated microbes obtained from mammoth remains	776
	Michael Richards	Faculty of Environment	Boomerang and bones: Refining the chronology of the Early Upper Paleolithic at Obłazowa Cave, Poland	674
3	Scott Lear	Faculty of Health Sciences	Visceral adipose tissue and hepatic fat as determinants of carotid atherosclerosis	528
4	David Stenning	Faculty of Science	FRB 20250316A: A Brilliant and Nearby One-off Fast Radio Burst Localized to 13 pc Precision	463
5	Mark Collard	Faculty of Environment	A test of the Archaic Homo Introgression Hypothesis for the Chiari malformation type I	463
6	Francesco Berna	Faculty of Environment	Early human collective practices and symbolism in the Early Upper Paleolithic of Southwest Asia	442
7	Nicholas Dulvy	Faculty of Science	Ecological erosion and expanding extinction risk of sharks and rays	421
8	Kelley Lee	Faculty of Health Sciences	Solving climate change requires changing our food systems	409
9	Jean-Christophe Belisle-Pipon	Faculty of Health Sciences	Ethics in Patient Preferences for Artificial Intelligence–Drafted Responses to Electronic Messages	375
10	Bernard Crespi	Faculty of Science	I tweet, therefore I am: a systematic review on social media use and disorders of the social brain	263
11	Christopher Napier	Faculty of Science	“If a shoe had been designed from a woman’s foot, would I be running without getting the injuries?”: running footwear needs and preferences of recreational and competitive women runners across the lifespan	233
12	Bohdan Nosyk Lawrence McCandless, Thomas Loughin	Faculty of Health Sciences; Faculty of Health Sciences; Faculty of Science	Buprenorphine/Naloxone vs Methadone for the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder	208
	Nicholas Dulvy	Faculty of Science	Deep-sea mining risks for sharks, rays, and chimaeras	189
	Michael Richards	Faculty of Environment	Genomic and morphological analysis reveals long-term mammoth hybridization in British Columbia, Canada	175
13	Robert Hogg	Faculty of Health Sciences	Life expectancy and mortality among males and females with HIV in British Columbia in 1996–2020: a population-based cohort study	161
	Scott Lear	Faculty of Health Sciences	Social factors, health policy, and environment: implications for cardiovascular disease across the globe	158
14	Zhanna Lyubykh	Beedie School of Business	Facilitating Mental Health Disclosure and Better Work Outcomes: The Role of Organizational Support for Disclosing Mental Health Concerns	138
15	Rosemary Collard	Faculty of Environment	Does regulation delay mines? A timeline and economic benefit audit of British Columbia mines	136
16	Gerhard Gries	Faculty of Science	Identification and Seasonal Abundance of Web- and Air-Borne Sex Pheromone Components of Western Black Widow Spiders, Latrodectus hesperus	136
17	Caroline Colijn	Faculty of Science	Measles in Canada: modelling outbreaks with variable vaccine coverage and interventions	134
18	Kiffer Card	Faculty of Health Sciences	Public Health Guidelines for Social Connection: An International Delphi Study	132
	Kiffer Card	Faculty of Health Sciences	Diverse community perspectives on public health guidelines for social connection: a qualitative study in Canada	131
19	Valentin Jaumouille	Faculty of Science	Volumetric imaging of the 3D orientation of cellular structures with a polarized fluorescence light-sheet microscope	117
20	Vincenzo Pecunia	Faculty of Applied Sciences	Accurate performance characterization, reporting, and benchmarking for indoor photovoltaics	113

* Please note that the attention scores are subject to change over time; some items may appear out of order. List compiled on December 1, 2025.

The most-read SFU authors in The Conversation Canada

The Conversation Canada is the nation’s premier source of news and views from the academic and research community. The publication’s journalists work with experts to share their knowledge for use by the wider public, independently and free from paywalls. SFU scholars are encouraged to pitch an article.

In 2025, The Conversation Canada featured over 75 stories from more than 50 SFU researchers, generating more than 1.6 million reads. The 20 unique scholars with the most reads are listed below. Popular English language articles are often translated into French.

Top 20 SFU authors in The Conversation Canada

	Authors	Faculty	Title	Reads
1	Valorie A. Crooks, Jeremy Snyder	Faculty of Health Sciences	When Canadian snowbirds don't flock south, the costs are more than financial *French translation	516,444 116736*
2	Cara Tremain, Sabrina C. Higgins	Faculty of Environment, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	Possible ancient artifacts are found in a B.C. thrift shop - and archeology scholars are on the case	67,695
3	Jerry Paul Sheppard	Beedie School of Business	Donald Trump's policies are more than dumb, they're stupid, according to stupidity researchers *French translation	57,053 12,229*
4	Yuthika Girme	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	Choosing singlehood? Here are 5 tips for thriving while being single *French translation	47,829 8,991*
5	Zhanna Lyubykh	Beedie School of Business	Why employees hesitate to disclose mental health concerns - and what employers can do about it	38,018
6	Kiffer George Card	Faculty of Health Sciences	We created health guidelines for fighting loneliness - here's what we recommend	27,432
7	Andy Hira, Andrew Simon Wright	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	Canada's proposed east-west energy corridors should prioritize clean energy	22,753
8	Gaelle Planchenault	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	Judith Godrèche, Adèle Haenel: the media coverage of a cry	21,253
9	James Horncastle	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	Why is Trump's preferential treatment of Russia shifting? Because there's nothing in it for him	20,594
	James Horncastle	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	What the U.S. ceasefire proposal means for Ukraine, Russia, Europe and Donald Trump	19,613
	James Horncastle	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	Ukraine's drone attacks on Russian airfields could derail Russia's war efforts	18,919
10	Yushu Zhu	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	The distant dream of owning a home: Canada sees growing inequality in home ownership	17,973
11	Kristina K. Castaneto, Lara B Aknin	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	Reluctance to reach out to old friends is a common experience, but reconnecting can pay off	17,544
12	Jas M. Morgan	Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology	'Cows and plows:' The settlement over a broken Indigenous treaty shows the urgent need for more transparent governance	14,666
13	Kiffer George Card	Faculty of Health Sciences	Social connection is crucial to well-being: New public health guidelines aim to build healthier lives and communities	14,386
	James Horncastle	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	Trump-Putin ceasefire conversation shows no initial signs of bringing peace to Ukraine	12,842
14	Andrea Krüsi	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	Service closures in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside leave sex workers without vital support	12,745
15	Ted Palys	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	How Eurostack could offer Canada a route to digital independence from the United States	11,879
16	Mohsen Javdani	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	What is modern monetary theory? An economist explains how it could help Canada	10,347
17	Spyros A. Sofos	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	What’s behind Erdoğan’s calculated shift on Kurds and its potential consequences	8,879
	James Horncastle	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	Why Israel and the U.S. are sure to encounter the limits of air power in Iran	8,722
18	Elizabeth A. Marshall	Education	Emmy-winning ER drama The Pitt shines a light on compassionate teaching	8,392
19	Scott Lear	Health Sciences	Is no amount of alcohol safe? Understanding risks and public health guidelines	8,409
	James Horncastle	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences	Why Russia's provocations in Europe actually signal a weakened strategic position	7,640
20	Anne-Marie Nicol, Prem Gundarah	Health Sciences	DIY air cleaners are an easy and cost-effective way to help ventilate homes during wildfires	7,391

Congratulations researchers! Please reach out to your faculty communications and marketing team for support sharing your work as a news story or on social channels, or to become an SFU media expert. You can also nominate yourself or a colleague to be featured in the Scholarly Impact of the Week series.

For more: Read all about it – the top SFU News stories of 2025

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