{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,12]],"date-time":"2026-03-12T06:00:09Z","timestamp":1773295209469,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,2]],"date-time":"2025-05-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1746144000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"European Union\u2014NextgenerationEU and the Romanian Government","award":["760034\/23.05.2023"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["760034\/23.05.2023"]}]},{"name":"European Union\u2014NextgenerationEU and the Romanian Government","award":["PNRR-C9-I8-CF255\/29.11.2022"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PNRR-C9-I8-CF255\/29.11.2022"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>We study the inequality of citations received for different publications of various researchers and Nobel laureates in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine and Economics using Google Scholar data from 2012 to 2024. Citation distributions are found to be highly unequal, with even greater disparity among Nobel laureates. Measures of inequality, such as the Gini and Kolkata indices, emerge as useful indicators for distinguishing Nobel laureates from others. Such high inequality corresponds to growing critical fluctuations, suggesting that excellence aligns with an imminent (self-organized dynamical) critical point. Additionally, Nobel laureates exhibit systematically lower values of the Tsallis\u2013Pareto parameter b and Shannon entropy, indicating more structured citation distributions. We also analyze the inequality in Olympic medal tallies across countries and find similar levels of disparity. Our results suggest that inequality measures can serve as proxies for competitiveness and excellence.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e27050495","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,2]],"date-time":"2025-05-02T08:28:11Z","timestamp":1746174491000},"page":"495","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Does Excellence Correspond to Universal Inequality Level?"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"27","author":[{"given":"Soumyajyoti","family":"Biswas","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics, SRM University-AP, Amaravati 522240, India"},{"name":"Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SRM University-AP, Amaravati 522240, India"}]},{"given":"Bikas K.","family":"Chakrabarti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata 700064, India"},{"name":"Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata 700108, India"}]},{"given":"Asim","family":"Ghosh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics, Raghunathpur College, Raghunathpur, Purulia 723133, India"}]},{"given":"Sourav","family":"Ghosh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics, SRM University-AP, Amaravati 522240, India"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4492-5019","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"M\u00e1t\u00e9","family":"J\u00f3zsa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Deptartment of Physics, Babe\u015f-Bolyai University, 400347 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7319-5123","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zolt\u00e1n","family":"N\u00e9da","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Deptartment of Physics, Babe\u015f-Bolyai University, 400347 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1630001","DOI":"10.1142\/S0129183116300013","article-title":"Income Inequality in the 21st Century\u2014A Biased Summary of Piketty\u2019s Capital in the Twenty-First Century","volume":"27","author":"Stauffer","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int. 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