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University · Edinburgh · United Kingdom

University of Edinburgh

In research, University of Edinburgh stands highest in Social Sciences (#31 of 10,521 worldwide), Arts and Humanities (#12 of 1,998 worldwide) and Social Sciences (#53 of 6,365 worldwide), 2022–2025. Relative to its size it is most specialised in Classics, History and Philosophy of Science and Instrumentation — Classics is 8.9× its share of world research.

ed.ac.ukROR OpenAlex
World rank, 2022–2025
#99
of 28,054 · #83 all time
Rank in United Kingdom
#7
of 1,094
Research works
113k
▲ 11% vs 2013–17
Citations
3.6M
31.8 per fractional work
Top-10% rate
23.6%
record average 16.5%
Open access
44%
world 28%

What is University of Edinburgh 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 #31 of 10,521 23.9%5,821 #43
Arts and HumanitiesField #12 of 1,998 18.0%1,320 #9
Social SciencesField #53 of 6,365 26.1%2,759 #37
Physical SciencesDomain #135 of 12,888 23.0%5,121 #121
Health SciencesDomain #135 of 11,982 22.4%2,609 #65
Life SciencesDomain #99 of 7,800 26.0%1,806 #66
Political Science and International RelationsSubfield #16 of 1,201 27.1%470 #19
Sociology and Political ScienceSubfield #40 of 2,578 24.4%1,009 #36
PsychologyField #34 of 2,181 25.6%800 #57
MedicineField #167 of 10,443 22.6%2,084 #97

Each strip is that field’s whole ranked pool, with the notch where University of Edinburgh 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#43 #31
  2. Arts and Humanities#9 #12
  3. Social Sciences#37 #53
  4. Physical Sciences#121 #135
  5. Health Sciences#65 #135
  6. Life Sciences#66 #99
  7. Political Science and International Relations#19 #16
  8. Sociology and Political Science#36 #40
  9. Psychology#57 #34
  10. Medicine#97 #167
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 University of Edinburgh specialise in?

Where its research is concentrated relative to its size: Classics takes 8.9× the share of its output that it takes of world research.

  1. ClassicsSubfield · 81.2 works8.9×
  2. History and Philosophy of ScienceSubfield · 120.5 works5.1×
  3. InstrumentationSubfield · 36.4 works4.7×
  4. HistorySubfield · 231.6 works4.7×
  5. MusicSubfield · 57.0 works4.5×
  6. AnthropologySubfield · 176.6 works4.1×
← 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: 0.44× its world share, 324 worksAgricultural and Bio…Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology: 1.11× its world share, 909 worksBiochemistry, Geneti…Immunology and Microbiology: 0.94× its world share, 145 worksImmunology and Micro…Neuroscience: 1.61× its world share, 402 worksNeurosciencePharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics: 0.48× its world share, 26 worksPharmacology, Toxico…Chemical Engineering: 0.72× its world share, 39 worksChemical EngineeringChemistry: 0.72× its world share, 173 worksChemistryComputer Science: 1.15× its world share, 1,378 worksComputer ScienceEarth and Planetary Sciences: 1.23× its world share, 297 worksEarth and Planetary …Energy: 0.55× its world share, 78 worksEnergyEngineering: 0.66× its world share, 1,516 worksEngineeringEnvironmental Science: 0.82× its world share, 628 worksEnvironmental ScienceMaterials Science: 0.44× its world share, 237 worksMaterials ScienceMathematics: 1.34× its world share, 242 worksMathematicsPhysics and Astronomy: 1.56× its world share, 534 worksPhysics and AstronomyDentistry: 0.29× its world share, 22 worksDentistryHealth Professions: 0.98× its world share, 396 worksHealth ProfessionsMedicine: 0.71× its world share, 2,084 worksMedicineNursing: 0.46× its world share, 35 worksNursingVeterinary: 3.44× its world share, 72 worksVeterinaryArts and Humanities: 2.98× its world share, 1,320 worksArts and HumanitiesBusiness, Management and Accounting: 0.83× its world share, 410 worksBusiness, Management…Decision Sciences: 1.12× its world share, 167 worksDecision SciencesEconomics, Econometrics and Finance: 1.11× its world share, 365 worksEconomics, Econometr…Psychology: 1.71× its world share, 800 worksPsychologySocial Sciences: 1.42× its world share, 2,759 worksSocial Sciences1×world share
more than its size predictsabout as predictedless

Rings at 0.5×, 1× and 2×. Widest outward: Veterinary, 3.4×. Every wedge is a field page.

Who are the top researchers at University of Edinburgh?

Ranked on the composite score, Aziz Sheikh, Igor Rudan and Cathie Sudlow lead among researchers whose main affiliation is University of Edinburgh.

  1. 1 Aziz Sheikh United Kingdom · #17 worldwide 5.8k citations · 274 works
  2. 2 Igor Rudan United Kingdom · #430 worldwide 3.6k citations · 161 works
  3. 3 Cathie Sudlow United Kingdom · #1,365 worldwide 2.1k citations · 88 works
  4. 4 Harry Campbell United Kingdom · #1,443 worldwide 1.5k citations · 104 works
  5. 5 James F. Wilson United Kingdom · #1,800 worldwide 2k citations · 98 works
  6. 6 Michael Atiyah United Kingdom · #2,229 worldwide 1.4k citations · 87 works
  7. 7 Gordon Murray United Kingdom · #2,553 worldwide 1.4k citations · 144 works
  8. 8 Caroline Hayward United Kingdom · #2,795 worldwide 2k citations · 134 works
  9. 9 Peter Sandercock United Kingdom · #3,313 worldwide 1.3k citations · 75 works
  10. 10 Andy Clark United Kingdom · #4,109 worldwide 1.3k citations · 104 works
All ranked researchers at University of Edinburgh

Which keywords describe research at University of Edinburgh?

By fractional works in 2022–2025, weighted toward what it does more of than the world: Globalization, History, Nationalism, Colonialism, Epidemiology, Religion, Mental Health and Identity.

▲ 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. Globalization558▲ 1.85×135 topics
  2. Epidemiology511▼ 0.84×136 topics
  3. Deep Learning441▼ 0.84×81 topics
  4. Machine Learning426▼ 0.85×84 topics
  5. Climate Change396◆ 0.96×109 topics
  6. Mental Health338▲ 1.50×44 topics
  7. Sustainability302▼ 0.81×101 topics
  8. History288▲ 2.7×50 topics
  9. Public Health287▲ 1.28×65 topics
  10. Neural Networks269◆ 1.14×38 topics
  11. Human Rights265▲ 1.68×66 topics
  12. Identity250▲ 2.2×64 topics
  13. Nationalism244▲ 3.4×31 topics
  14. Colonialism229▲ 3.1×42 topics
  15. Religion222▲ 3.0×40 topics
  16. Gender212▲ 2.5×49 topics
  17. Ethics209▲ 2.8×45 topics
  18. Literature202▲ 2.4×55 topics
  19. Culture176▲ 2.2×33 topics
  20. Neoliberalism169▲ 3.1×26 topics
  21. Social Justice152▲ 1.69×39 topics
  22. Philosophy151▲ 2.2×36 topics
  23. Ethnicity139▲ 2.4×23 topics
  24. Feminism135▲ 3.1×23 topics
  25. Politics131▲ 3.1×21 topics
  26. Neuroscience128▲ 2.8×18 topics
  27. Society117▲ 3.9×21 topics
  28. National Identity108▲ 6.2×9 topics
  29. Cultural Exchange106▲ 5.3×11 topics
  30. Emotion103▲ 3.2×12 topics
  31. Corpus Linguistics100▲ 3.0×5 topics
  32. Social Cognition92▲ 3.5×9 topics
  33. Cosmopolitanism91▲ 5.5×8 topics
  34. Religious Identity89▲ 9.4×6 topics
  35. Empire88▲ 6.8×6 topics
  36. Public Opinion88▲ 4.6×7 topics
  37. Late Antiquity84▲ 10×3 topics
  38. Cultural Politics68▲ 6.7×7 topics
  39. Demography67▲ 9.3×3 topics
  40. Church History64▲ 9.4×3 topics

Which research topics does University of Edinburgh publish most on?

By volume in 2022–2025: Natural Language Processing Techniques, Classical Antiquity Studies, Topic Modeling and Byzantine Studies and History.

Natural Language Process…70Natural Language Processing Techniques: 70 fractional worksClassical Antiquity Stud…62Classical Antiquity Studies: 62 fractional worksTopic Modeling59Topic Modeling: 59 fractional worksByzantine Studies and Hi…51Byzantine Studies and History: 51 fractional worksScottish History and National Identity: 48 fractional worksEthics and Social Impacts of AI: 37 fractional worksGeographies of human-ani…33Geographies of human-animal interactions: 33 fractional worksBiblical Studies and Int…32Biblical Studies and Interpretation: 32 fractional worksReformation and Early Mo…31Reformation and Early Modern Christianity: 31 fractional worksDementia and Cognitive I…30Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research: 30 fractional works
Artificial IntelligenceAnthropologyClassicsHistory4 others

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

  1. 1 Natural Language Processing Techniques Artificial Intelligence 70 works
  2. 2 Classical Antiquity Studies Anthropology 62 works
  3. 3 Topic Modeling Artificial Intelligence 59 works
  4. 4 Byzantine Studies and History Classics 51 works
  5. 5 Scottish History and National Identity History 48 works
  6. 6 Ethics and Social Impacts of AI Safety Research 37 works
  7. 7 Geographies of human-animal interactions Geography, Planning and Development 33 works
  8. 8 Biblical Studies and Interpretation Religious studies 32 works
  9. 9 Reformation and Early Modern Christianity History 31 works
  10. 10 Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research Psychiatry and Mental health 30 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 available44.5%not open55.5%

World: 28% of research is openly available.

with international co-authors22.7%domestic only77.3%

World: 19% is written across borders.

How has University of Edinburgh'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 Edinburgh

All research institutions in Edinburgh

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.