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Field · Social Sciences

Psychology research

Psychology is a field of the Social Sciences. Science Explorer counts 2.9M research works in it since 1950. 21.3% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: study of mental functions and behaviours.

Research works
2.9M
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
627k
per year above
Top-10% rate
21.3%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
144
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+41%
the tick is no change

What is Psychology research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2019–23, its most used keywords are Mental Health, Depression, Resilience, Anxiety, Psychological Distress, Psychological Impact. Gaining share since 2009–13: COVID-19, Pandemic, Psychological Impact, Psychological Distress, Anxiety. Losing share: Attachment, Cognition, Emotion, Anxiety Disorders.

▲ gaining share of this field◆ holding its share▼ losing share

Size is the world's fractional works in 2019–23 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2009–13. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Mental Health205k▲ 1.39×21 topics
  2. Depression117k▲ 1.58×9 topics
  3. Resilience80k▲ 1.19×10 topics
  4. Anxiety71k▲ 2.7×6 topics
  5. Psychological Distress64k▲ 3.1×5 topics
  6. Psychological Impact58k▲ 3.5×3 topics
  7. Coping Strategies53k▲ 1.50×9 topics
  8. Emotion Regulation49k◆ 0.90×6 topics
  9. Meta-Analysis49k◆ 0.91×7 topics
  10. Psychopathology47k◆ 0.93×4 topics
  11. Epidemiology45k◆ 1.07×6 topics
  12. Adolescents43k◆ 0.93×3 topics
  13. COVID-1942k▲ 30×1 topic
  14. Pandemic42k▲ 30×1 topic
  15. Well-being40k▲ 1.45×8 topics
  16. Motivation39k◆ 1.01×6 topics
  17. Stress38k▲ 1.34×4 topics
  18. Self-Efficacy32k▲ 1.34×5 topics
  19. Social Support31k◆ 1.12×5 topics
  20. Trauma31k◆ 1.11×7 topics
  21. Prevalence30k◆ 0.91×4 topics
  22. Anxiety Disorders30k▼ 0.84×2 topics
  23. Parenting30k▼ 0.84×2 topics
  24. Self-Regulation29k◆ 0.87×3 topics
  25. Quality of Life28k◆ 1.05×6 topics
  26. Mental Disorders28k◆ 1.05×3 topics
  27. Psychological Well-being28k▲ 2.0×8 topics
  28. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy26k▲ 1.71×3 topics
  29. Positive Emotions26k▲ 1.67×2 topics
  30. Treatment26k◆ 0.92×4 topics
  31. Education26k◆ 1.10×9 topics
  32. Psychological Adjustment26k▲ 1.30×3 topics
  33. Neuroscience26k◆ 0.89×6 topics
  34. Neurobiological Correlates25k▼ 0.86×4 topics
  35. Cognition25k▼ 0.73×4 topics
  36. Health Disparities23k▲ 1.50×2 topics
  37. Personality Traits23k◆ 0.94×6 topics
  38. Attachment23k▼ 0.71×3 topics
  39. Social Cognition22k▼ 0.86×4 topics
  40. Emotion22k▼ 0.76×5 topics

Which countries lead Psychology research?

On research quality in 2022–2025, the United States, China and the United Kingdom rank highest in Psychology. By volume, the United States and China publish the most (137k and 50k works in 2022–2025).

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States · #1 all time 20.2% top 10% · 137k works
  2. 2 China · #6 all time 29.1% top 10% · 50k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom · #2 all time 24.6% top 10% · 36k works
  4. 4 Germany · #4 all time 22.9% top 10% · 27k works
  5. 5 Australia · #5 all time 30.0% top 10% · 18k works
  6. 6 Canada · #3 all time 21.8% top 10% · 20k works
  7. 7 Italy · #9 all time 26.1% top 10% · 14k works
  8. 8 Spain · #8 all time 20.1% top 10% · 17k works
  9. 9 Netherlands · #7 all time 29.9% top 10% · 9.7k works
  10. 10 India · #15 all time 11.2% top 10% · 26k works

The track on each row is that row’s top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the composite score, which the rate is only one part of.

Of 109 countries ranked in Psychology. Composite of field-normalised excellence (50%), output (30%) and citations (20%); the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Psychology

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States 137k works
  2. 2 China 50k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 36k works
  4. 4 Indonesia 31k works
  5. 5 Germany 27k works
  6. 6 India 26k works
  7. 7 Türkiye 25k works
  8. 8 Brazil 22k works
  9. 9 Canada 20k works
  10. 10 Australia 18k works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 35.0%China: 12.7%United Kingdom: 9.1%Indonesia: 7.9%6 others listed: 35.3%35%largest
United States137k · 35.0%China50k · 12.7%United Kingdom36k · 9.1%Indonesia31k · 7.9%6 others listed138k · 35.3%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Psychology research?

Harvard University (United States) ranks first in Psychology on research quality in 2022–2025, followed by University College London and Peking University.

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Harvard University United States · Cambridge · #4 all time 32.8% top 10% · 1.3k works
  2. 2 University College London United Kingdom · London · #6 all time 32.0% top 10% · 1.6k works
  3. 3 Peking University China · Beijing 28.9% top 10% · 764 works
  4. 4 King's College London United Kingdom · London · #27 all time 32.1% top 10% · 1.2k works
  5. 5 Stanford University United States · Stanford · #1 all time 30.5% top 10% · 971 works
  6. 6 University of Toronto Canada · Toronto · #10 all time 24.6% top 10% · 1.6k works
  7. 7 UNSW Sydney Australia · Sydney · #54 all time 31.4% top 10% · 878 works
  8. 8 Hebei Normal University China · Shijiazhuang 24.9% top 10% · 89 works
  9. 9 University of Michigan United States · Ann Arbor · #2 all time 27.6% top 10% · 1.3k works
  10. 10 University of Oxford United Kingdom · Oxford · #16 all time 31.1% top 10% · 1.1k works

The track on each row is that row’s top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the composite score, which the rate is only one part of.

Of 2,181 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Psychology.

Top 100 Psychology institutions

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States 2.1k works
  2. 2 University of Toronto Canada 1.6k works
  3. 3 University College London United Kingdom 1.6k works
  4. 4 Sapienza University of Rome Italy 1.4k works
  5. 5 Harvard University United States 1.3k works
  6. 6 Pennsylvania State University United States 1.3k works
  7. 7 University of Michigan United States 1.3k works
  8. 8 Beijing Normal University China 1.2k works
  9. 9 The University of Melbourne Australia 1.2k works
  10. 10 Universidade de São Paulo Brazil 1.2k works

Who are the leading researchers in Psychology?

Among the most productive authors in Psychology, Ronald C. Kessler, Steven Long and Sigmund Freud rank highest on the composite score.

  1. 1 Ronald C. Kessler United States · #14 worldwide 9.8k citations · 232 works
  2. 2 Steven Long United States · #20 worldwide 4.9k citations · 181 works
  3. 3 Sigmund Freud United States · #25 worldwide 2.7k citations · 174 works
  4. 4 Josep María Haro Spain · #63 worldwide 6.4k citations · 180 works
  5. 5 Mika Kivimäki United Kingdom · #69 worldwide 6.7k citations · 266 works
  6. 6 John J. McGrath Australia · #105 worldwide 5.3k citations · 193 works
  7. 7 James G. Scott Australia · #112 worldwide 4.3k citations · 219 works
  8. 8 Wilmar B. Schaufeli Netherlands · #130 worldwide 5.3k citations · 157 works
  9. 9 Richard M. Ryan United States · #153 worldwide 10k citations · 118 works
  10. 10 Robert Rosenthal United States · #204 worldwide 3.8k citations · 135 works

Re-ranked on the composite score from the 5,809 highest-output authors in Psychology. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Psychology researchers

Where is Psychology research done?

The largest centres of Psychology research in 2022–2025 are London (United Kingdom), Beijing (China), New York (United States) and Istanbul (Türkiye). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Hawthorn East, Lutterworth and Oconomowoc.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 London United Kingdom 9.2k works
  2. 2 Beijing China 8.7k works
  3. 3 New York United States 6.4k works
  4. 4 Istanbul Türkiye 4.8k works
  5. 5 Paris France 4.5k works
  6. 6 Tokyo Japan 4.5k works
  7. 7 Melbourne Australia 4.3k works
  8. 8 São Paulo Brazil 4.3k works
  9. 9 Tehran Iran 4.2k works
  10. 10 Shanghai China 4.2k works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Hawthorn EastAU · 48.4 works17×
  2. LutterworthGB · 20.8 works17×
  3. OconomowocUS · 23.0 works17×
  4. Prien am ChiemseeDE · 26.6 works16×
  5. Seal BeachUS · 31.8 works14×
  6. PrestwichGB · 80.7 works13×
  7. Richmond Hill37.9 works13×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Psychology than the world average.

See Psychology on the map

Psychology research by country

The best places for Psychology research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study Psychology?

Among universities, judged by research, Education University of Hong Kong, University College London and Hong Kong Polytechnic University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 35.07%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Education University of Hong Kong: 548, 44.3%University College London: 1,631, 32.0%Hong Kong Polytechnic University: 818, 36.7%The University of Melbourne: 1,220, 31.3%Chinese University of Hong Kong: 807, 34.1%Harvard University: 1,327, 32.8%University of Hong Kong: 918, 32.2%University of Macau: 419, 36.0%Australian Catholic University: 284, 39.2%King's College London: 1,152, 32.1%Education University…Hong Kong Polytechni…University College L…The University of Me…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Education University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 64.444.3%6.0×548 +63.3%
2University College London United Kingdom 54.832.0%1.9×1,631 +38.5%
3Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong 52.636.7%1.5×818 +30.7%
4The University of Melbourne Australia 51.331.3%2.0×1,220 +52.9%
5Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 51.134.1%1.9×807 +35.7%
6Harvard University United States 50.932.8%1.7×1,327 +24.5%
7University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 50.732.2%1.7×918 +26.5%
8University of Macau Macau 50.636.0%2.1×419 +86.8%
9Australian Catholic University Australia 50.639.2%4.4×284 +110.8%
10King's College London United Kingdom 50.132.1%2.5×1,152 +7.9%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Psychology research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 41% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are COVID-19 and Mental Health, Health and Well-being Studies and Educational Games and Gamification.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

  1. COVID-19 and Mental Health+440%
  2. Health and Well-being Studies+297%
  3. Educational Games and Gamification+248%
  4. Resilience and Mental Health+246%
  5. Mental Health Research Topics+194%
  6. Sleep and related disorders+189%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2005–09 to 2015–19. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Psychology include?

Child and Adolescent Psy…99kChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development: 99k fractional worksCOVID-19 and Mental Health57kCOVID-19 and Mental Health: 57k fractional worksInnovative Teaching and Learning Methods: 55k fractional worksHealth and Well-being Studies: 52k fractional worksNeuroendocrine regulation and behavior: 52k fractional worksFamily and Disability Su…51kFamily and Disability Support Research: 51k fractional worksLanguage, Metaphor, and Cognition: 50k fractional worksSleep and related disorders: 47k fractional worksPsychotherapy Techniques…46kPsychotherapy Techniques and Applications: 46k fractional worksEating Disorders and Behaviors: 45k fractional worksMental Health Treatment and Access: 45k fractional worksMigration, Health and Tr…43kMigration, Health and Trauma: 43k fractional works

Area is fractional works in that topic. Every name below is a page of its own.