William Alston

3.2k total citations · 1 hit paper
64 papers, 1.7k citations indexed

About

William Alston is a scholar working on Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics and Radiation. According to data from OpenAlex, William Alston has authored 64 papers receiving a total of 1.7k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 53 papers in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 25 papers in Nuclear and High Energy Physics and 9 papers in Radiation. Recurrent topics in William Alston's work include Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations (51 papers), Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena (27 papers) and Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena (25 papers). William Alston is often cited by papers focused on Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations (51 papers), Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena (27 papers) and Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena (25 papers). William Alston collaborates with scholars based in United Kingdom, United States and Spain. William Alston's co-authors include A. C. Fabian, Erin Kara, P. Uttley, Matthew Middleton, C. Pinto, S. Vaughan, Matthias Steup, M. L. Parker, D. J. Walton and C. S. Reynolds and has published in prestigious journals such as The Astrophysical Journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and Astronomy and Astrophysics.

In The Last Decade

William Alston

60 papers receiving 1.6k citations

Hit Papers

False periodicities in quasar time-domain surveys 2016 2026 2019 2022 2016 50 100 150
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.

  1. False periodicities in quasar time-domain surveys
    2016 178 citations S. Vaughan, P. Uttley et al. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

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

Name h Career Trend Papers Cites
William Alston United Kingdom 23 1.4k 616 145 136 99 64 1.7k
Horst Müller Germany 15 500 0.3× 581 0.9× 31 0.2× 8 0.1× 231 2.3× 51 1.3k
Daniel M. Siegel United States 18 892 0.6× 423 0.7× 13 0.1× 16 0.1× 55 0.6× 46 1.3k
M. M. Davis United States 17 897 0.6× 336 0.5× 30 0.2× 15 0.1× 127 1.3× 61 1.1k
John Wild Australia 18 902 0.6× 136 0.2× 100 0.7× 18 0.1× 89 0.9× 70 1.3k
David H. Brooks United States 22 1.3k 0.9× 94 0.2× 22 0.2× 16 0.1× 17 0.2× 96 1.5k
David Lindley United States 13 437 0.3× 420 0.7× 12 0.1× 21 0.2× 13 0.1× 112 810
B. E. Chapman United States 23 781 0.5× 1.1k 1.8× 14 0.1× 198 1.5× 14 0.1× 81 1.3k
Ian Heywood United Kingdom 22 1.3k 0.9× 554 0.9× 15 0.1× 51 0.4× 31 0.3× 120 1.5k
Vincent Icke Netherlands 19 930 0.6× 237 0.4× 25 0.2× 14 0.1× 23 0.2× 64 1.2k
Jay M. Pasachoff United States 21 1.3k 0.9× 83 0.1× 8 0.1× 26 0.2× 19 0.2× 223 1.6k

Countries citing papers authored by William Alston

Since Specialization
Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of William Alston'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 William Alston with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites William Alston more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by William Alston

Since Specialization
Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by William Alston. 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 William Alston. The network helps show where William Alston may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of William Alston

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of William Alston. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of William Alston 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 William Alston. William Alston is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

20 of 20 papers shown
1.
Walton, D. J., Peter Kosec, Jiachen Jiang, et al.. (2025). The broad-band view of the bare Seyfert PG 1426+015: relativistic reflection, the soft excess, and the importance of oxygen. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 543(3). 2633–2648.
2.
Pinto, C., Daniele Rogantini, D. Barret, et al.. (2024). A systematic study of the ultra-fast outflow responses to luminosity variations in active galactic nuclei. Astronomy and Astrophysics. 687. A179–A179. 6 indexed citations
3.
Pinto, C., et al.. (2024). Effects of ultrafast outflows on X-ray time lags in active galactic nuclei. Astronomy and Astrophysics. 692. A78–A78. 1 indexed citations
4.
Walton, D. J., Javier A. García, J. M. Mïller, et al.. (2024). Exploring the high-density reflection model for the soft excess in RBS 1124. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 534(1). 608–620. 3 indexed citations
5.
Lewin, Collin, Erin Kara, Dan Wilkins, et al.. (2022). X-Ray Reverberation Mapping of Ark 564 Using Gaussian Process Regression. The Astrophysical Journal. 939(2). 109–109. 8 indexed citations
6.
Mallick, Labani, A. C. Fabian, Javier A. García, et al.. (2022). High-density disc reflection spectroscopy of low-mass active galactic nuclei. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 513(3). 4361–4379. 17 indexed citations
7.
Pinto, C., D. J. Walton, Roberto Soria, et al.. (2021). Broadband X-ray spectral variability of the pulsing ULX NGC 1313 X-2. Springer Link (Chiba Institute of Technology). 16 indexed citations
8.
Pinto, C., Roberto Soria, D. J. Walton, et al.. (2021). XMM-Newton campaign on the ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 247 ULX-1: outflows. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 505(4). 5058–5074. 40 indexed citations
9.
Pasham, Dheeraj R., Wynn C. G. Ho, William Alston, et al.. (2021). Evidence for a compact object in the aftermath of the extragalactic transient AT2018cow. Nature Astronomy. 6(2). 249–258. 34 indexed citations
10.
Matzeu, G. A., E. Nardini, M. L. Parker, et al.. (2020). The first broad-band X-ray view of the narrow-line Seyfert 1 Ton S180. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 497(2). 2352–2370. 19 indexed citations
11.
Fabian, A. C., C. S. Reynolds, Jiachen Jiang, et al.. (2020). Blueshifted absorption lines from X-ray reflection in IRAS 13224−3809. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 493(2). 2518–2522. 11 indexed citations
12.
Buisson, D. J. K., Andy Fabián, William Alston, et al.. (2018). Exponential increase in X-ray QPO frequency with time in MAXI J1820+070. The astronomer's telegram. 11578. 1.
13.
Buisson, D. J. K., A. Lohfink, William Alston, et al.. (2018). Is there a UV/X-ray connection in IRAS 13224−3809?. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 475(2). 2306–2313. 22 indexed citations
14.
Lohfink, A., et al.. (2016). Ultraviolet and X-ray variability of active galactic nuclei withSwift. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 464(3). 3194–3218. 44 indexed citations
15.
Lohfink, A., C. S. Reynolds, C. Pinto, et al.. (2016). THE RHYTHM OF FAIRALL 9. I. OBSERVING THE SPECTRAL VARIABILITY WITHXMM-NEWTONANDNuSTAR. The Astrophysical Journal. 821(1). 11–11. 23 indexed citations
16.
Kara, Erin, William Alston, & A. C. Fabian. (2016). A global look at X‐ray time lags in Seyfert galaxies. Astronomische Nachrichten. 337(4-5). 473–478. 7 indexed citations
17.
Dovčiak, Michal, Barbara De Marco, Erin Kara, et al.. (2014). Reverberation mapping in the lamp-post geometry of the compact corona illuminating a black-hole accretion disc in AGN. 244.
18.
Alston, William, S. Vaughan, & P. Uttley. (2013). The flux-dependent X-ray time lags in NGC 4051. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 435(2). 1511–1519. 39 indexed citations
19.
Adams, Robert Merrihew & William Alston. (1994). Religious Disagreements and Doxastic Practices. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 54(4). 885–885.
20.
Alston, William. (1991). The Inductive Problem of Evil. Philosophical Perspectives. 5. 2 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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