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University · Oxford · United Kingdom

University of Oxford

In research, University of Oxford stands highest in Social Sciences (#1 of 10,521 worldwide), Social Sciences (#1 of 6,365 worldwide) and Sociology and Political Science (#1 of 2,578 worldwide), 2022–2025. Relative to its size it is most specialised in Classics, Theoretical Computer Science and History and Philosophy of Science — Classics is 12.6× its share of world research.

ox.ac.ukROR OpenAlex
World rank, 2022–2025
#9
of 28,054 · #11 all time
Rank in United Kingdom
#1
of 1,094
Research works
184k
▲ 13% vs 2013–17
Citations
7.7M
41.7 per fractional work
Top-10% rate
26.7%
record average 16.5%
Open access
43%
world 28%

What is University of Oxford 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 #1 of 10,521 25.5%9,853 #5
Social SciencesField #1 of 6,365 28.6%4,721 #1
Sociology and Political ScienceSubfield #1 of 2,578 29.3%1,630 #2
Political Science and International RelationsSubfield #1 of 1,201 27.2%1,046 #2
MathematicsField #1 of 1,053 20.6%641 —
Health SciencesDomain #15 of 11,982 27.4%4,829 #21
Physical SciencesDomain #24 of 12,888 26.5%7,989 #17
MedicineField #20 of 10,443 26.9%4,099 #21
Life SciencesDomain #19 of 7,800 29.9%3,200 #14
Arts and HumanitiesField #5 of 1,998 17.0%2,366 #3

Each strip is that field’s whole ranked pool, with the notch where University of Oxford 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#5 #1
  2. Social Sciences#1 #1
  3. Sociology and Political Science#2 #1
  4. Political Science and International Relations#2 #1
  5. Health Sciences#21 #15
  6. Physical Sciences#17 #24
  7. Medicine#21 #20
  8. Life Sciences#14 #19
  9. Arts and Humanities#3 #5
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 Oxford specialise in?

Where its research is concentrated relative to its size: Classics takes 12.6× the share of its output that it takes of world research.

  1. ClassicsSubfield · 193.9 works13×
  2. Theoretical Computer ScienceSubfield · 28.7 works6.5×
  3. History and Philosophy of ScienceSubfield · 226.6 works5.7×
  4. AnthropologySubfield · 397.9 works5.5×
  5. HistorySubfield · 419.6 works5.0×
  6. Discrete Mathematics and CombinatoricsSubfield · 48.6 works4.7×
← 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: 0.37× its world share, 460 worksAgricultural and Bio…Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology: 1.14× its world share, 1,571 worksBiochemistry, Geneti…Immunology and Microbiology: 1.30× its world share, 338 worksImmunology and Micro…Neuroscience: 1.87× its world share, 786 worksNeurosciencePharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics: 0.50× its world share, 45 worksPharmacology, Toxico…Chemical Engineering: 0.68× its world share, 61 worksChemical EngineeringChemistry: 0.97× its world share, 392 worksChemistryComputer Science: 0.81× its world share, 1,634 worksComputer ScienceEarth and Planetary Sciences: 1.24× its world share, 503 worksEarth and Planetary …Energy: 0.57× its world share, 136 worksEnergyEngineering: 0.49× its world share, 1,914 worksEngineeringEnvironmental Science: 0.80× its world share, 1,028 worksEnvironmental ScienceMaterials Science: 0.62× its world share, 563 worksMaterials ScienceMathematics: 2.11× its world share, 641 worksMathematicsPhysics and Astronomy: 1.94× its world share, 1,116 worksPhysics and AstronomyDentistry: 0.09× its world share, 11 worksDentistryHealth Professions: 0.93× its world share, 637 worksHealth ProfessionsMedicine: 0.82× its world share, 4,099 worksMedicineNursing: 0.51× its world share, 64 worksNursingVeterinary: 0.52× its world share, 18 worksVeterinaryArts and Humanities: 3.17× its world share, 2,366 worksArts and HumanitiesBusiness, Management and Accounting: 0.59× its world share, 490 worksBusiness, Management…Decision Sciences: 1.12× its world share, 279 worksDecision SciencesEconomics, Econometrics and Finance: 1.62× its world share, 894 worksEconomics, Econometr…Psychology: 1.40× its world share, 1,101 worksPsychologySocial Sciences: 1.44× its world share, 4,721 worksSocial Sciences1×world share
more than its size predictsabout as predictedless

Rings at 0.5×, 1× and 2×. Widest outward: Arts and Humanities, 3.2×. Every wedge is a field page.

Who are the top researchers at University of Oxford?

Ranked on the composite score, Andrew Zisserman, Mark I. McCarthy and Douglas G. Altman lead among researchers whose main affiliation is University of Oxford.

  1. 1 Andrew Zisserman · #3 worldwide 25k citations · 241 works
  2. 2 Mark I. McCarthy · #148 worldwide 4.9k citations · 194 works
  3. 3 Douglas G. Altman · #199 worldwide 23k citations · 108 works
  4. 4 Henry J. Snaith · #217 worldwide 6.6k citations · 125 works
  5. 5 Richard Doll · #268 worldwide 2.5k citations · 114 works
  6. 6 Stephen M. Smith · #444 worldwide 3.5k citations · 106 works
  7. 7 Andrea Vedaldi · #469 worldwide 4.9k citations · 122 works
  8. 8 Richard Peto · #990 worldwide 2.9k citations · 93 works
  9. 9 Roger Penrose · #1,114 worldwide 3.7k citations · 90 works
  10. 10 C. Liu · #1,133 worldwide 4k citations · 140 works
All ranked researchers at University of Oxford

Which keywords describe research at University of Oxford?

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

▲ 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. Globalization1,012▲ 1.99×146 topics
  2. Epidemiology979◆ 0.96×139 topics
  3. Climate Change808▲ 1.16×107 topics
  4. Machine Learning665▼ 0.79×87 topics
  5. Deep Learning622▼ 0.70×80 topics
  6. History593▲ 3.3×60 topics
  7. Religion555▲ 4.5×40 topics
  8. Human Rights540▲ 2.0×77 topics
  9. Nationalism504▲ 4.2×34 topics
  10. Colonialism472▲ 3.9×48 topics
  11. Public Health465▲ 1.24×70 topics
  12. Identity447▲ 2.4×69 topics
  13. Literature446▲ 3.2×60 topics
  14. Mental Health444▲ 1.17×45 topics
  15. Inflammation440▼ 0.82×83 topics
  16. Gender427▲ 3.0×55 topics
  17. Culture424▲ 3.1×35 topics
  18. Ethics404▲ 3.2×53 topics
  19. Philosophy402▲ 3.5×42 topics
  20. Economic Growth337▲ 1.53×30 topics
  21. Society294▲ 5.9×25 topics
  22. Democracy286▲ 3.1×30 topics
  23. Neoliberalism279▲ 3.0×28 topics
  24. Politics234▲ 3.3×22 topics
  25. Ethnicity231▲ 2.4×22 topics
  26. International Law224▲ 2.8×29 topics
  27. Feminism221▲ 3.0×25 topics
  28. Public Opinion208▲ 6.4×6 topics
  29. Global Governance205▲ 3.5×23 topics
  30. Cosmopolitanism171▲ 6.1×9 topics
  31. Theology160▲ 6.4×6 topics
  32. Late Antiquity157▲ 11×3 topics
  33. Demography138▲ 11×3 topics
  34. Medieval136▲ 14×3 topics
  35. Cultural Transmission132▲ 6.4×5 topics
  36. Social History132▲ 6.1×8 topics
  37. Ancient Rome129▲ 15×1 topic
  38. Greek Literature129▲ 15×1 topic
  39. Church History122▲ 11×3 topics
  40. Manuscripts120▲ 21×2 topics

Which research topics does University of Oxford publish most on?

By volume in 2022–2025: Classical Antiquity Studies, Medieval Literature and History, Reformation and Early Modern Christianity and Historical Economic and Social Studies.

Classical Antiquity Stud…129Classical Antiquity Studies: 129 fractional worksMedieval Literature and …115Medieval Literature and History: 115 fractional worksReformation and Early Mo…91Reformation and Early Modern Christianity: 91 fractional worksHistorical Economic and …84Historical Economic and Social Studies: 84 fractional worksAmerican Constitutional Law and Politics: 73 fractional worksEthics and Social Impacts of AI: 73 fractional worksHealth Systems, Economic…67Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life: 67 fractional worksPerovskite Materials and Applications: 60 fractional worksNeural dynamics and brain function: 59 fractional worksWildlife Ecology and Con…59Wildlife Ecology and Conservation: 59 fractional works
AnthropologyClassicsHistoryEconomics and Econometrics5 others

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

  1. 1 Classical Antiquity StudiesAnthropology 129 works
  2. 2 Medieval Literature and HistoryClassics 115 works
  3. 3 Reformation and Early Modern ChristianityHistory 91 works
  4. 4 Historical Economic and Social StudiesEconomics and Econometrics 84 works
  5. 5 American Constitutional Law and PoliticsPolitical Science and International Relations 73 works
  6. 6 Ethics and Social Impacts of AISafety Research 73 works
  7. 7 Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of LifeEconomics and Econometrics 67 works
  8. 8 Perovskite Materials and ApplicationsElectrical and Electronic Engineering 60 works
  9. 9 Neural dynamics and brain functionCognitive Neuroscience 59 works
  10. 10 Wildlife Ecology and ConservationEcology 59 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 available43.0%not open57.0%

World: 28% of research is openly available.

with international co-authors28.1%domestic only71.9%

World: 19% is written across borders.

How has University of Oxford's research output changed?

Output in 2018–2022 was 13% 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 Oxford

All research institutions in Oxford

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.