Publication impact

Kate Crowe and wrote two papers summarizing children's speech acquisition. Recently we learned that they are two of the three papers that are the most downloaded of any papers published in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association journals. WOW!

• Children's English Consonant Acquisition in the United States: A Review, authored by Kathryn Crowe and Sharynne McLeod and published in AJSLP in November 2020 currently has 298, 831 downloads.  At the current rate it will pass 300,000 downloads sometime this month.
• Children's Consonant Acquisition in 27 Languages: A Cross-Linguistic Review, authored by Sharynne McLeod and Kathryn Crowe and published in the November 2018 edition of AJSLP is currently at 205,471 downloads. 

Community Recognition Statement in the NSW State Parliament

Thank you to Paul Toole MP who sent me a letter to say that he had read a Community Recognition Statement in the NSW State Parliament recently. I received a letter and copy of the statement in the mail. I am very honoured that our work has been recognised in this way.

https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Hansard/Pages/HansardResult.aspx#/docid/HANSARD-1323879322-158940 

Legislative Assembly Hansard – 22 October 2025 

Sharynne McLeod 

Mr PAUL TOOLE (Bathurst)—The contribution that Sharynne McLeod has made to research science cannot be underestimated. In fact, the former student at Bathurst West Public School is among the top two per cent of scientists in the world. Sharynne is known and renowned for research to enhance equitable participation for children with speech, language, and communication needs. And now the distinguished Professor has taken on the role of director of a world-first research centre located on campus at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst ‑ The Children's Voices Centre. Its focus is on research with children for children and about children. Adding merit to the initiative is the fact the World Health Organisation has invited Sharynne and her team to create a research project to listen to children across the world about their perspectives, and to remind the world that there are not only children in the world, but they are not only the future of our society, but they are also the present. Congratulations Professor McLeod, your cutting-edge research, based right here in Bathurst, is something you and our entire community should be proud of.

 

ScholarGPS Highly Ranked Scholars

I just received the following email:

ScholarGPS celebrates Highly Ranked Scholars™ for their exceptional performance in various Fields, Disciplines, and Specialties. Your prolific publication record, the high impact of your work, and the outstanding quality of your scholarly contributions have placed you in the top 0.05% of all scholars worldwide. View your scholar profile and rankings 

Listed below is a summary of the areas (and your ranking in those areas) in which you have been awarded Highly Ranked Scholar status based on your accomplishments over the totality of your career (lifetime) and over the prior five years: 

• Highly Ranked Scholar - Lifetime #2 Speech-language pathology 
• Highly Ranked Scholar - Prior 5 Years #1 Speech-language pathology

I was thrilled to see that three of the five highly ranked scholars (lifetime) are Australian: Mark Onslow and Linda Worrall.

 

Web of Science "17 publications have cited your work since Sep 13th 2022"

Today I received an email from Web of Science stating:"17 publications have cited your work since Sep 13th 2022" (i.e. in the past week!). It is exciting to see the impact of our work. Here are the 17  articles:

1. Translation and validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale into Sinhala for adolescents in Sri Lanka with cleft lip and palate - Kankanamalage, IM; Cleland, J and Cohen, W 
2.  Current practices, supports, and challenges in speech-language pathology service provision for autistic preschoolers - Binns, AV; Cunningham, BJ; (...); Cardy, JO 
3. Optimizing Outcomes for Children With Phonological Impairment: A Systematic Search and Review of Outcome and Experience Measures Reported in Intervention Research - Baker, E; Masso, S; (...); Sugden, E 
4. Dynamic Assessment for Children With Communication Disorders: A Systematic Scoping Review and Framework - Bamford, CK; Masso, S; (...); Ballard, KJ 
5. Implementing Speech Perception and Phonological Awareness Intervention for Children With Speech Sound Disorders - Brosseau-Lapre, F and Roepke, E 
6.  Speech Sound Disorder Treatment Approaches Used by School-Based Clinicians: An Application of the Experience Sampling Method - Cabbage, K; Farquharson, K and DeVeney, S 
7. Clinical Considerations for Speech Perception in School-Age Children With Speech Sound Disorders: A Review of the Current Literature - Cabbage, KL and Hitchcock, ER 
8. Access to Speech and Language Services and Service Providers for Children With Speech and Language Disorders - Davidson, MM; Alonzo, CN and Stransky, ML 
9. Facing a Clinical Challenge: Limited Empirical Support for Toddler Speech Sound Production Intervention Approaches - DeVeney, SL and Peterkin, K 
10. Intraword Variability in Children With Auditory Brainstem Implants: A Longitudinal Comparison With Children With Cochlear Implants - Faes, J and Gillis, S 
11. Introduction: Innovations in Treatment for Children With Speech Sound Disorders Farquharson, K and Tambyraja, S 
12. Using the Experience Sampling Method to Examine the Details of Dosage in School-Based Speech Sound Therapy - Farquharson, K; McIlraith, A; (...); Constantino, C 
13. Drawing Talking: Listening to Children With Speech Sound Disorders - McCormack, J; McLeod, S; (...); Holliday, EL 
14. SuperSpeech: Multilingual Speech and Language Maintenance Intervention for Vietnamese-Australian Children and Families via Telepractice - McLeod, S; Verdon, S; (...); Wang, C 
15. Clinicians' Perspectives of Treatment for Lateralization Errors: A Quantitative and Qualitative Study - Overby, MS; Mazeika, S; (...); Devorace, L 
16. Minimal, Maximal, or Multiple: Which Contrastive Intervention Approach to Use With Children With Speech Sound Disorders? - Storkel, HL 
17. A Nonverbal Recognition Method to Assist Speech - Meloni, F; Sicchieri, B; (...); Macedo, AA

Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech approved for coverage in Scopus

I recieved this welcome email 

Dear Members of the JMBS Editorial Board, 

Happy New Year 2022! We would like to share some good news. The Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech was evaluated by the Scopus Content Selection and Advisory Board (CSAB) and it has been approved for coverage in Elsevier Scopus. JMBS will appear on the Scopus list in about a month. Thank you for your continuing teamwork and support! 

Elena Babatsouli and Martin J. Ball Editors, Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech (JMBS)

Australia's Field Leader in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology (2018, 2019, 2020)

I am very honoured to learn that I am Australia's Research Field Leader in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology for the third year in a row: 2018, 2019, 2020: https://specialreports.theaustralian.com.au/1540291/18/

This is wonderful confirmation of the impact of collaborative research with my Speech-Language-Multilingualism Team, since during 2018-2019 my personal research productivity was diminshed due to my cancer treatments. 

Here are our accomplishments in The Australian Research Rankings since they began:

• 2018: Australia's Field Leader in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - Sharynne McLeod, CSU
  
• 2018: Australia's Lead Institution in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - Charles Sturt Univeristy
• 2019: World Leader in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - Sharynne McLeod, CSU
• 2019: Australia's Field Leader in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - Sharynne McLeod, CSU
• 2019: Australia's Lead Institution in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - Charles Sturt Univeristy
• 2020: Australia's Field Leader in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - Sharynne McLeod, CSU
• 2020: Australia's Lead Institution in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - University of Queensland

I am pleased that three CSU professors were named in 2020:

• 2020: Australia's Field Leader in Insects and Arthropods - Geoff Gurr, CSU
• 2020: Australia's Field Leader in Strategic Management - Morgan Miles, CSU
• 2020: Australia's Field Leader in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - Sharynne McLeod, CSU 

CSU wrote a news release about the recognition: https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/three-charles-sturt-researchers-named-australian-leaders-in-their-fields

Here is how each ranking is calculated:

• World Leader: "No other researcher in the world has a higher number of citations from papers published in the last five years in the top 20 journals in that particular field"
  (The Australian - Research, p. 10, September 23, 2020).
• Field Leader: "In each of the 255 fields we name the Australian-based researcher whose papers published in the top 20 journals in their field in the past five years have had the most citations by other researchers" (The Australian - Research, p. 9, September 23, 2020).  
• Lead Institution: "The top institution is the one which has the most citations from research published in the top 20 journals in that particular field in the last five years"  (The Australian - Research, p. 9, September 23, 2020).  

Finding out the news while on leave and celebrating with
lavendar and lemon scones straight from the oven!

Here are some news stories and my blog posts about our recognition in previous years:

• 2019: The Australian
• 2019: The Australian newsstory
  
• 2019: Blog post - https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2019/09/world-research-leader-in-audiology.html
• 2018: The Australian
• 2018: Blog post - https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2018/09/australias-research-field-leaders-in.html
  

SUMMARY: In 2018, 2019 and 2020 I was named Australia’s Research Field Leader in Audiology, Speech and Language Pathology and in 2019 was named the “best in the world based on the quality, volume and impact of work” by The Australian Newspaper who also named Charles Sturt University the Lead Institution in Audiology, Speech and Language Pathology in 2018 and 2019.

https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=top_venues&hl=en&vq=med_audiologyspeechlanguagepathology

 

Publications and citations

There are a number of different websites that are used to collate publications and citations of publications. Each collect data using different criteria. Here are the links to my work on these sites:

• ORCHID
• ResearcherID (Web of Science)
• SCOPUS ID
• GOOGLE SCHOLAR

I used the ResearcherID website to create a map of my collaboration network (the locations of my co-authors):

 

and another of my citing articles network:

 It is interesting to see the reach of our work.

Identifying phonological awareness difficulties in preschool children with speech sound disorders

It has been exciting to see the recent interest in Sarah Masso's paper from her PhD

Masso, S., Baker, E., McLeod, S. & McCormack, J. (2014). Identifying phonological awareness difficulties in preschool children with speech sound disorders. Speech, Language, and Hearing, 17, 58-68.

This paper has been listed as one of the most read papers in the past month and the past year from the journal's website (here). We also received  a request for a copy of the paper from Bratislava, Slovakia this week!