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University · Fairfax · United States

George Mason University

In research, George Mason University stands highest in Social Sciences (#221 of 10,521 worldwide), Sociology and Political Science (#85 of 2,578 worldwide) and Social Sciences (#220 of 6,365 worldwide), 2022–2025. Relative to its size it is most specialised in Software, Safety Research and History and Philosophy of Science — Software is 5.8× its share of world research.

gmu.eduROR OpenAlex
World rank, 2022–2025
#709
of 28,054 · #556 all time
Rank in United States
#140
of 4,192
Research works
40k
▲ 11% vs 2013–17
Citations
864k
21.4 per fractional work
Top-10% rate
20.2%
record average 16.5%
Open access
31%
world 28%

What is George Mason University known for in research?

The fields where it stands highest, 2022–2025, ranked among every institution above the floor in each field.

FieldWorld rankWhere that sitsTop-10% rateWorksAll time
Social SciencesDomain #221 of 10,521 22.6%3,131 #137
Sociology and Political ScienceSubfield #85 of 2,578 26.7%601 #65
Social SciencesField #220 of 6,365 25.2%1,611 #117
Physical SciencesDomain #720 of 12,888 17.4%2,411 #671
Computer ScienceField #280 of 4,667 18.0%1,055 #110
PsychologyField #162 of 2,181 24.2%421 #160
Health SciencesDomain #959 of 11,982 20.0%688 #726
Arts and HumanitiesField #203 of 1,998 17.2%227 #274
Political Science and International RelationsSubfield #136 of 1,201 16.6%271 #99
Economics, Econometrics and FinanceField #214 of 1,775 17.6%437 #104

Each strip is that field’s whole ranked pool, with the notch where George Mason University sits in it, in the colour of the band that rank falls in. The track under the rate is the rate itself: it carries no world mark, because the world rate differs by field (from about 6% to 21% in this record).

Which of those standings moved

The same fields on both windows: where it stood over the whole record, and where it stands in 2022–2025. The distance is the story, and it is the one thing the two rank columns above cannot show.

  1. Social Sciences#137 #221
  2. Sociology and Political Science#65 #85
  3. Social Sciences#117 #220
  4. Physical Sciences#671 #720
  5. Computer Science#110 #280
  6. Psychology#160 #162
  7. Health Sciences#726 #959
  8. Arts and Humanities#274 #203
  9. Political Science and International Relations#99 #136
  10. Economics, Econometrics and Finance#104 #214
all time2022–2025, better2022–2025, worse

A dot further right is a better standing. Fields it was not ranked in over the whole record are left out.

What does George Mason University specialise in?

Where its research is concentrated relative to its size: Software takes 5.8× the share of its output that it takes of world research.

  1. SoftwareSubfield · 24.9 works5.8×
  2. Safety ResearchSubfield · 92.3 works5.0×
  3. History and Philosophy of ScienceSubfield · 37.7 works3.7×
  4. Hardware and ArchitectureSubfield · 26.3 works3.5×
  5. Signal ProcessingSubfield · 69.8 works3.5×
  6. General Economics, Econometrics and FinanceSubfield · 55.9 works3.4×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient, a volume reading rather than an impact one. It surfaces small, lopsided specialities.

Field profile

Location quotient across every field it publishes in: outside the ring is more than an institution of this size would be expected to publish, inside it is less.

Agricultural and Biological Sciences: 0.22× its world share, 70 worksAgricultural and Bio…Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology: 0.50× its world share, 175 worksBiochemistry, Geneti…Immunology and Microbiology: 0.31× its world share, 21 worksImmunology and Micro…Neuroscience: 1.04× its world share, 112 worksNeurosciencePharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics: 0.22× its world share, 5 worksPharmacology, Toxico…Chemical Engineering: 0.25× its world share, 6 worksChemical EngineeringChemistry: 0.30× its world share, 31 worksChemistryComputer Science: 2.05× its world share, 1,055 worksComputer ScienceEarth and Planetary Sciences: 1.16× its world share, 121 worksEarth and Planetary …Energy: 0.22× its world share, 14 worksEnergyEngineering: 0.57× its world share, 567 worksEngineeringEnvironmental Science: 0.90× its world share, 296 worksEnvironmental ScienceMaterials Science: 0.30× its world share, 69 worksMaterials ScienceMathematics: 1.38× its world share, 108 worksMathematicsPhysics and Astronomy: 0.98× its world share, 145 worksPhysics and AstronomyDentistry: 0.05× its world share, 2 worksDentistryHealth Professions: 1.10× its world share, 191 worksHealth ProfessionsMedicine: 0.38× its world share, 478 worksMedicineNursing: 0.43× its world share, 14 worksNursingVeterinary: 0.39× its world share, 4 worksVeterinaryArts and Humanities: 1.19× its world share, 227 worksArts and HumanitiesBusiness, Management and Accounting: 1.39× its world share, 295 worksBusiness, Management…Decision Sciences: 2.17× its world share, 139 worksDecision SciencesEconomics, Econometrics and Finance: 3.09× its world share, 437 worksEconomics, Econometr…Psychology: 2.09× its world share, 421 worksPsychologySocial Sciences: 1.93× its world share, 1,611 worksSocial Sciences1×world share
more than its size predictsabout as predictedless

Rings at 0.5×, 1× and 2×. Widest outward: Economics, Econometrics and Finance, 3.1×. Every wedge is a field page.

Who are the top researchers at George Mason University?

Ranked on the composite score, Gordon Tullock, James M. Buchanan and Zhi Tian lead among researchers whose main affiliation is George Mason University.

  1. 1 Gordon Tullock United States · #73 worldwide 3.2k citations · 169 works
  2. 2 James M. Buchanan United States · #1,865 worldwide 1.6k citations · 151 works
  3. 3 Zhi Tian United States · #1,866 worldwide 2.5k citations · 87 works
  4. 4 Raja Parasuraman United States · #7,543 worldwide 833 citations · 59 works
  5. 5 Zoltán J. Ács United States · #8,160 worldwide 1.9k citations · 139 works
  6. 6 Peter J. Denning United States · #14,381 worldwide 967 citations · 142 works
  7. 7 Y. Mishin United States · #14,913 worldwide 1k citations · 55 works
  8. 8 Emanuel F. Petricoin United States · #16,660 worldwide 668 citations · 73 works
  9. 9 Ryszard S. Michalski United States · #19,943 worldwide 843 citations · 103 works
  10. 10 Anastasia Kitsantas United States · #20,981 worldwide 627 citations · 47 works
All ranked researchers at George Mason University

Which keywords describe research at George Mason University?

By fractional works in 2022–2025, weighted toward what it does more of than the world: Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Globalization, Neoliberalism, Property Rights, Economic Growth, Human Rights and Mental Health.

▲ more of its work than of the world’s◆ about the world’s share▼ less than the world’s

Size is fractional works in 2022–2025 in the topics tagged with each word; colour is the word's share of this institution's work against its share of the world's. The 40 words are chosen for being large and distinctive. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Machine Learning412▲ 1.90×82 topics
  2. Deep Learning349▲ 1.54×74 topics
  3. Globalization282▲ 2.2×108 topics
  4. Climate Change192◆ 1.08×85 topics
  5. Mental Health165▲ 1.70×42 topics
  6. Neural Networks158▲ 1.55×37 topics
  7. Economic Growth153▲ 2.7×23 topics
  8. Human Rights146▲ 2.1×61 topics
  9. Neoliberalism144▲ 6.1×23 topics
  10. Big Data136▲ 2.3×24 topics
  11. Artificial Intelligence123▲ 1.36×44 topics
  12. Social Media117▲ 1.24×29 topics
  13. Security117▲ 2.7×25 topics
  14. Property Rights114▲ 26×7 topics
  15. Regulation101▲ 2.8×22 topics
  16. Trust90▲ 4.9×10 topics
  17. Corporate Governance90▲ 1.84×22 topics
  18. Ethics89▲ 2.8×28 topics
  19. Social Capital85▲ 2.4×18 topics
  20. Nationalism84▲ 2.7×23 topics
  21. International Law83▲ 4.1×22 topics
  22. Religion79▲ 2.5×25 topics
  23. Democracy76▲ 3.2×24 topics
  24. Surveillance74▲ 4.2×6 topics
  25. Global Governance71▲ 4.7×18 topics
  26. IoT Security68▲ 3.2×3 topics
  27. Political Economy67▲ 3.9×16 topics
  28. Behavioral Economics60▲ 17×3 topics
  29. Public Opinion58▲ 7.0×6 topics
  30. Self-Regulation57▲ 4.9×6 topics
  31. Security Analysis57▲ 5.0×4 topics
  32. Institutional Economics56▲ 44×2 topics
  33. Economic Institutions55▲ 48×1 topic
  34. Evolutionary Economics55▲ 55×1 topic
  35. Macroeconomics55▲ 30×2 topics
  36. Neighborhood Effects52▲ 7.3×3 topics
  37. Accountability51▲ 7.2×4 topics
  38. Fairness49▲ 8.6×2 topics
  39. Developmental Trajectories48▲ 5.9×3 topics
  40. Youth Violence43▲ 14×3 topics

Which research topics does George Mason University publish most on?

By volume in 2022–2025: Economic Theory and Institutions, Ethics and Social Impacts of AI, Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis and Advanced Malware Detection Techniques.

Economic Theory and Inst…55Economic Theory and Institutions: 55 fractional worksEthics and Social Impact…32Ethics and Social Impacts of AI: 32 fractional worksCriminal Justice and Corrections Analysis: 31 fractional worksAdvanced Malware Detection Techniques: 30 fractional worksCrime Patterns and Interventions: 30 fractional worksAmerican Constitutional Law and Politics: 29 fractional worksNetwork Security and Intrusion Detection: 26 fractional worksPrivacy-Preserving Techn…26Privacy-Preserving Technologies in Data: 26 fractional worksTopic Modeling23Topic Modeling: 23 fractional worksNatural Language Processing Techniques: 23 fractional works
Economics and EconometricsSafety ResearchSociology and Political ScienceSignal Processing3 others

Area is fractional works; colour is the subfield each topic belongs to.

  1. 1 Economic Theory and Institutions Economics and Econometrics 55 works
  2. 2 Ethics and Social Impacts of AI Safety Research 32 works
  3. 3 Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis Sociology and Political Science 31 works
  4. 4 Advanced Malware Detection Techniques Signal Processing 30 works
  5. 5 Crime Patterns and Interventions Sociology and Political Science 30 works
  6. 6 American Constitutional Law and Politics Political Science and International Relations 29 works
  7. 7 Network Security and Intrusion Detection Computer Networks and Communications 26 works
  8. 8 Privacy-Preserving Technologies in Data Artificial Intelligence 26 works
  9. 9 Topic Modeling Artificial Intelligence 23 works
  10. 10 Natural Language Processing Techniques Artificial Intelligence 23 works

How open and international is its research?

Against the world’s own shares — the tick on each track. Both are shares of its output, so they sit on one scale and can be read against each other as well as against the world.

openly available31.0%not open69.0%

World: 28% of research is openly available.

with international co-authors13.5%domestic only86.5%

World: 19% is written across borders.

How has George Mason University's research output changed?

Output in 2018–2022 was 11% higher than in 2013–2017.

1990200020102020
grewheldshrank

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

Other research institutions in Fairfax

All research institutions in Fairfax

Research measures only: rankings here say nothing about teaching, admissions or student experience. Comparable institutions and collaboration partners are in the interactive view on the map.