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University · Stanford · United States

Stanford University

In research, Stanford University stands highest in Medicine (#2 of 10,443 worldwide), Life Sciences (#2 of 7,800 worldwide) and Health Sciences (#4 of 11,982 worldwide), 2022–2025. Relative to its size it is most specialised in Transplantation, Statistics and Probability and Health Informatics — Transplantation is 4.4× its share of world research.

stanford.eduROR OpenAlex
World rank, 2022–2025
#8
of 28,054 · #2 all time
Rank in United States
#2
of 4,192
Research works
223k
▲ 6% vs 2013–17
Citations
14M
62.7 per fractional work
Top-10% rate
25.5%
record average 16.5%
Open access
34%
world 28%

What is Stanford 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
MedicineField #2 of 10,443 20.6%7,481 #4
Life SciencesDomain #2 of 7,800 28.5%3,613 #4
Health SciencesDomain #4 of 11,982 21.0%8,198 #7
Social SciencesDomain #6 of 10,521 29.7%4,775 #1
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular BiologyField #4 of 3,579 28.7%2,049 #3
Molecular BiologySubfield #3 of 2,175 29.5%1,215 #3
Sociology and Political ScienceSubfield #4 of 2,578 34.1%742 #3
Artificial IntelligenceSubfield #3 of 1,884 30.4%833 #1
Physical SciencesDomain #22 of 12,888 26.4%7,869 #2
NeuroscienceField #2 of 1,168 26.2%919 #3

Each strip is that field’s whole ranked pool, with the notch where Stanford 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. Medicine#4 #2
  2. Life Sciences#4 #2
  3. Health Sciences#7 #4
  4. Social Sciences#1 #6
  5. Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#3 #4
  6. Molecular Biology#3 #3
  7. Sociology and Political Science#3 #4
  8. Artificial Intelligence#1 #3
  9. Physical Sciences#2 #22
  10. Neuroscience#3 #2
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 Stanford University specialise in?

Where its research is concentrated relative to its size: Transplantation takes 4.4× the share of its output that it takes of world research.

  1. TransplantationSubfield · 47.5 works4.4×
  2. Statistics and ProbabilitySubfield · 168.4 works3.2×
  3. Health InformaticsSubfield · 94.6 works3.2×
  4. Discrete Mathematics and CombinatoricsSubfield · 26.2 works2.7×
← 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: 0.20× its world share, 238 worksAgricultural and Bio…Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology: 1.57× its world share, 2,049 worksBiochemistry, Geneti…Immunology and Microbiology: 1.47× its world share, 363 worksImmunology and Micro…Neuroscience: 2.32× its world share, 919 worksNeurosciencePharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics: 0.51× its world share, 44 worksPharmacology, Toxico…Chemical Engineering: 0.90× its world share, 77 worksChemical EngineeringChemistry: 0.45× its world share, 171 worksChemistryComputer Science: 0.95× its world share, 1,808 worksComputer ScienceEarth and Planetary Sciences: 1.06× its world share, 405 worksEarth and Planetary …Energy: 0.54× its world share, 121 worksEnergyEngineering: 0.71× its world share, 2,606 worksEngineeringEnvironmental Science: 0.61× its world share, 743 worksEnvironmental ScienceMaterials Science: 0.54× its world share, 464 worksMaterials ScienceMathematics: 1.56× its world share, 448 worksMathematicsPhysics and Astronomy: 1.89× its world share, 1,027 worksPhysics and AstronomyDentistry: 0.23× its world share, 27 worksDentistryHealth Professions: 0.96× its world share, 618 worksHealth ProfessionsMedicine: 1.59× its world share, 7,481 worksMedicineNursing: 0.50× its world share, 60 worksNursingVeterinary: 0.40× its world share, 13 worksVeterinaryArts and Humanities: 0.75× its world share, 530 worksArts and HumanitiesBusiness, Management and Accounting: 0.39× its world share, 304 worksBusiness, Management…Decision Sciences: 1.05× its world share, 249 worksDecision SciencesEconomics, Econometrics and Finance: 1.06× its world share, 555 worksEconomics, Econometr…Psychology: 1.30× its world share, 971 worksPsychologySocial Sciences: 0.70× its world share, 2,165 worksSocial Sciences1×world share
more than its size predictsabout as predictedless

Rings at 0.5×, 1× and 2×. Widest outward: Neuroscience, 2.3×. Every wedge is a field page.

Who are the top researchers at Stanford University?

Ranked on the composite score, Li Fei-Fei, John P. A. Ioannidis and Kenneth J. Arrow lead among researchers whose main affiliation is Stanford University.

  1. 1 Li Fei-Fei · #9 worldwide 17k citations · 188 works
  2. 2 John P. A. Ioannidis · #10 worldwide 8k citations · 222 works
  3. 3 Kenneth J. Arrow · #26 worldwide 5.4k citations · 176 works
  4. 4 Robert Tibshirani · #38 worldwide 13k citations · 155 works
  5. 5 Dan Boneh · #95 worldwide 7.5k citations · 143 works
  6. 6 Sebastian Thrun · #118 worldwide 10k citations · 122 works
  7. 7 Leonidas Guibas · #165 worldwide 6.3k citations · 229 works
  8. 8 Jure Leskovec · #252 worldwide 4.3k citations · 142 works
  9. 9 Trevor Hastie · #274 worldwide 4.9k citations · 118 works
  10. 10 Robert M. Gray · #327 worldwide 3.5k citations · 117 works
All ranked researchers at Stanford University

Which keywords describe research at Stanford University?

By fractional works in 2022–2025, weighted toward what it does more of than the world: Epidemiology, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Immunotherapy, Inflammation, Cancer, Precision Medicine and Treatment.

▲ 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. Epidemiology1,304▲ 1.35×133 topics
  2. Deep Learning876◆ 1.05×81 topics
  3. Machine Learning867◆ 1.08×86 topics
  4. Inflammation604▲ 1.19×83 topics
  5. Climate Change464▼ 0.70×102 topics
  6. Cancer432▲ 1.31×57 topics
  7. Quality of Life417▲ 1.18×56 topics
  8. Immunotherapy401▲ 2.3×19 topics
  9. Oxidative Stress400◆ 1.00×61 topics
  10. Treatment395▲ 1.33×52 topics
  11. Risk Factors379▲ 1.41×37 topics
  12. Neural Networks379◆ 1.01×38 topics
  13. Public Health368◆ 1.04×67 topics
  14. Mental Health365◆ 1.02×46 topics
  15. Globalization347▼ 0.72×128 topics
  16. Cardiovascular Disease330▲ 1.22×38 topics
  17. Depression308▲ 1.43×26 topics
  18. Healthcare294◆ 1.07×33 topics
  19. Neurological Disorders285▲ 2.0×20 topics
  20. Precision Medicine277▲ 2.4×8 topics
  21. Diagnosis271▲ 1.19×41 topics
  22. Mortality268▲ 1.90×13 topics
  23. Genetics263▲ 1.54×27 topics
  24. Chemotherapy263▲ 1.54×25 topics
  25. Gene Expression259▲ 1.74×19 topics
  26. Clinical Trials255▲ 1.56×19 topics
  27. Biomarkers242▲ 1.45×18 topics
  28. Medical Imaging237▲ 1.89×9 topics
  29. Biosensors232▲ 1.84×12 topics
  30. Prognostic Factors230▲ 2.2×14 topics
  31. Radiotherapy223▲ 2.4×13 topics
  32. Genetic Mutations222▲ 2.1×23 topics
  33. Complications200▲ 1.64×17 topics
  34. Guidelines192▲ 1.69×13 topics
  35. Heart Failure190▲ 1.80×13 topics
  36. Magnetic Resonance Imaging164▲ 2.6×8 topics
  37. Medical Education161▲ 2.5×14 topics
  38. Cancer Immunotherapy143▲ 3.8×3 topics
  39. Lymphoma138▲ 3.5×4 topics
  40. Circadian Rhythms113▲ 4.5×2 topics

Which research topics does Stanford University publish most on?

By volume in 2022–2025: Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education, CAR-T cell therapy research, Radiomics and Machine Learning in Medical Imaging and Photonic and Optical Devices.

Artificial Intelligence …95Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education: 95 fractional worksCAR-T cell therapy resea…93CAR-T cell therapy research: 93 fractional worksRadiomics and Machine Learning in Medical Imaging: 78 fractional worksPhotonic and Optical Devices: 77 fractional worksTopic Modeling73Topic Modeling: 73 fractional worksMedical Imaging Techniques and Applications: 70 fractional worksSingle-cell and spatial transcriptomics: 68 fractional worksCancer Genomics and Diag…67Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics: 67 fractional worksFunctional Brain Connectivity Studies: 66 fractional worksSleep and related disorders: 61 fractional works
Health InformaticsOncologyRadiology, Nuclear Medicine and ImagingElectrical and Electronic Engineering5 others

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

  1. 1 Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and EducationHealth Informatics 95 works
  2. 2 CAR-T cell therapy researchOncology 93 works
  3. 3 Radiomics and Machine Learning in Medical ImagingRadiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging 78 works
  4. 4 Photonic and Optical DevicesElectrical and Electronic Engineering 77 works
  5. 5 Topic ModelingArtificial Intelligence 73 works
  6. 6 Medical Imaging Techniques and ApplicationsRadiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging 70 works
  7. 7 Single-cell and spatial transcriptomicsMolecular Biology 68 works
  8. 8 Cancer Genomics and DiagnosticsCancer Research 67 works
  9. 9 Functional Brain Connectivity StudiesCognitive Neuroscience 66 works
  10. 10 Sleep and related disordersExperimental and Cognitive Psychology 61 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 available33.9%not open66.1%

World: 28% of research is openly available.

with international co-authors15.0%domestic only85.0%

World: 19% is written across borders.

How has Stanford University's research output changed?

Output in 2018–2022 was 6% 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 Stanford

All research institutions in Stanford

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.