Manuel Will

1.2k total citations · 1 hit paper
41 papers, 750 citations indexed

About

Manuel Will is a scholar working on Anthropology, Paleontology and Archeology. According to data from OpenAlex, Manuel Will has authored 41 papers receiving a total of 750 indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 37 papers in Anthropology, 27 papers in Paleontology and 18 papers in Archeology. Recurrent topics in Manuel Will's work include Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (37 papers), Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (24 papers) and Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (18 papers). Manuel Will is often cited by papers focused on Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (37 papers), Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (24 papers) and Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (18 papers). Manuel Will collaborates with scholars based in Germany, South Africa and United Kingdom. Manuel Will's co-authors include Nicholas J. Conard, Andrew W. Kandel, Jay T. Stock, Eleanor M. L. Scerri, Alex Mackay, John Parkington, Adrián Pablos, Shumon T. Hussain, Mario Krapp and Andrea Manica and has published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Nature Communications and SHILAP Revista de lepidopterología.

In The Last Decade

Manuel Will

40 papers receiving 732 citations

Hit Papers

align trajectories

What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

The revolution that still isn't: The origins of behavioral complexity in Homo sapiens

2023 62 citations Eleanor M. L. Scerri, Manuel Will Journal of Human Evolution profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

Peers by citation overlap · career bar shows stage (early→late) cites · hero ref

Name	h						Papers	Cites
Manuel Will Germany	17	618	500	260	216	97	41	750
Luca Pollarolo South Africa	11	454 0.7×	366 0.7×	229 0.9×	150 0.7×	88 0.9×	12	608
Andrew W. Kandel Germany	18	722 1.2×	623 1.2×	359 1.4×	206 1.0×	130 1.3×	48	880
Michael Bolus Germany	10	630 1.0×	532 1.1×	297 1.1×	78 0.4×	161 1.7×	25	741
Vincent Mourre France	15	953 1.5×	728 1.5×	465 1.8×	182 0.8×	103 1.1×	45	1.1k
Jeffrey R. Ferguson United States	13	395 0.6×	423 0.8×	188 0.7×	110 0.5×	61 0.6×	50	696
Paloma de la Peña South Africa	18	833 1.3×	664 1.3×	361 1.4×	330 1.5×	149 1.5×	50	910
Gerrit L. Dusseldorp South Africa	13	452 0.7×	379 0.8×	194 0.7×	123 0.6×	74 0.8×	26	537
Sylvain Soriano France	19	1.1k 1.7×	888 1.8×	453 1.7×	353 1.6×	210 2.2×	44	1.3k
Francesco d’Errico France	10	551 0.9×	474 0.9×	333 1.3×	80 0.4×	74 0.8×	26	632
Ron Shimelmitz Israel	17	697 1.1×	662 1.3×	433 1.7×	62 0.3×	89 0.9×	44	866

Countries citing papers authored by Manuel Will

Since Specialization

Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Manuel Will's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by Manuel Will with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Manuel Will more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Manuel Will

Since Specialization

Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Manuel Will. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by Manuel Will. The network helps show where Manuel Will may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Manuel Will

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Manuel Will. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Manuel Will based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with Manuel Will. Manuel Will is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

Sort: Min cites: Since: Top N: Style:

20 of 20 papers shown

Leonardi, Michela, Manuel Will, Robert Beyer, et al.. (2025). Major expansion in the human niche preceded out of Africa dispersal. Nature. 644(8075). 115–121. 2 indexed citations

Riedesel, Svenja, Guillaume Guérin, Kristina J. Thomsen, et al.. (2025). A direct comparison of single-grain and multi-grain aliquot luminescence dating of feldspars from colluvial deposits in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. SPIRE - Sciences Po Institutional REpository. 7(1). 59–81.

Mazel, Aron, Christian Sommer, G.A. Botha, et al.. (2025). Revisited and Revalorised: Technological and Refitting Studies at the Middle Stone Age Open-Air Knapping Site Jojosi 1 (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa). Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology. 8(1). 1 indexed citations

Will, Manuel, et al.. (2025). Exploring the utility of unretouched lithic flakes as markers of cultural change. Scientific Reports. 15(1). 1571–1571. 2 indexed citations

Will, Manuel, Zenobia Jacobs, & Alex Mackay. (2024). No One Home? New Evidence for MIS 3 Occupations in the Western Cape (South Africa) from Mertenhof Rock Shelter. Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology. 7(1). 1 indexed citations

Will, Manuel, et al.. (2024). Experimental Investigation of Knapping Characteristics of Dolerite and Implications for the Interpretation of Middle Stone Age Technologies. Lithic Technology. 50(2). 169–187. 1 indexed citations

Pargeter, Justin, Alison S. Brooks, Katja Douze, et al.. (2023). Replicability in Lithic Analysis. American Antiquity. 88(2). 163–186. 25 indexed citations

Scerri, Eleanor M. L. & Manuel Will. (2023). The revolution that still isn't: The origins of behavioral complexity in Homo sapiens. Journal of Human Evolution. 179. 103358–103358. 62 indexed citations breakdown →

Will, Manuel, Mario Krapp, Jay T. Stock, & Andrea Manica. (2021). Different environmental variables predict body and brain size evolution in Homo. Nature Communications. 12(1). 4116–4116. 32 indexed citations

10.

Will, Manuel, et al.. (2021). Investigating the 1930s Kohl-Larsen collection from the Lake Eyasi Basin, Tanzania. 29. 2 indexed citations

11.

Brennenstuhl, Heiko, et al.. (2021). Patterns of extreme temperature-related catastrophic events in Europe including the Russian Federation: a cross-sectional analysis of the Emergency Events Database. BMJ Open. 11(6). e046359–e046359. 9 indexed citations

12.

Hussain, Shumon T. & Manuel Will. (2020). Materiality, Agency and Evolution of Lithic Technology: an Integrated Perspective for Palaeolithic Archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. 28(2). 617–670. 18 indexed citations

13.

Will, Manuel & Nicholas J. Conard. (2020). Regional patterns of diachronic technological change in the Howiesons Poort of southern Africa. PLoS ONE. 15(9). e0239195–e0239195. 13 indexed citations

14.

Will, Manuel & Nicholas J. Conard. (2016). What drives cultural change in the Middle Stone Age of Sibudu, KwaZulu-Natal?. Quaternary International. 404. 206–206. 1 indexed citations

15.

Will, Manuel, et al.. (2015). The lithic technology of Holley Shelter, KwaZulu-Natal and its place within the MSA of southern Africa. The South African Archaeological Bulletin. 70(202). 20 indexed citations

16.

Will, Manuel & Jay T. Stock. (2015). Spatial and temporal variation of body size among early Homo. Journal of Human Evolution. 82. 15–33. 42 indexed citations

17.

Conard, Nicholas J. & Manuel Will. (2015). Examining the Causes and Consequences of Short-Term Behavioral Change during the Middle Stone Age at Sibudu, South Africa. PLoS ONE. 10(6). e0130001–e0130001. 41 indexed citations

18.

Will, Manuel, et al.. (2015). Implications of Nubian-Like Core Reduction Systems in Southern Africa for the Identification of Early Modern Human Dispersals. PLoS ONE. 10(6). e0131824–e0131824. 64 indexed citations

19.

Will, Manuel, et al.. (2014). Characterizing the Late Pleistocene MSA Lithic Technology of Sibudu, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. PLoS ONE. 9(5). e98359–e98359. 57 indexed citations

20.

Will, Manuel, John Parkington, Andrew W. Kandel, & Nicholas J. Conard. (2013). Coastal adaptations and the Middle Stone Age lithic assemblages from Hoedjiespunt 1 in the Western Cape, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution. 64(6). 518–537. 58 indexed citations

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

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