Science Explorer Interactive view Map
Subfield · Neuroscience

Behavioral Neuroscience research

Behavioral Neuroscience is a subfield of Neuroscience. Science Explorer counts 64k research works in it since 1950. 20.7% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: field of scientific study.

Research works
64k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
13k
per year above
Top-10% rate
20.7%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
1
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+12%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Behavioral Neuroscience research?

On research quality in 2022–2025, the United States, China and Germany rank highest in Behavioral Neuroscience. By volume, the United States and China publish the most (2.4k and 1.2k works in 2022–2025).

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States · #1 all time 19.7% top 10% · 2.4k works
  2. 2 China · #6 all time 23.4% top 10% · 1.2k works
  3. 3 Germany · #3 all time 21.0% top 10% · 407 works
  4. 4 Canada · #4 all time 21.0% top 10% · 281 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom · #2 all time 22.6% top 10% · 272 works
  6. 6 Italy · #9 all time 25.1% top 10% · 224 works
  7. 7 Japan · #11 all time 10.4% top 10% · 338 works
  8. 8 Brazil · #13 all time 11.5% top 10% · 242 works
  9. 9 India · #18 all time 11.1% top 10% · 252 works
  10. 10 Russia · #22 all time 3.8% top 10% · 279 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 10 countries ranked in Behavioral Neuroscience. Composite of field-normalised excellence (50%), output (30%) and citations (20%); the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Behavioral Neuroscience

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States 2.4k works
  2. 2 China 1.2k works
  3. 3 Germany 407 works
  4. 4 Japan 338 works
  5. 5 Canada 281 works
  6. 6 Russia 279 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 272 works
  8. 8 India 252 works
  9. 9 Brazil 242 works
  10. 10 Italy 224 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: 40.6%China: 20.0%Germany: 7.0%Japan: 5.8%6 others listed: 26.6%41%largest
United States2,365 · 40.6%China1,165 · 20.0%Germany407 · 7.0%Japan338 · 5.8%6 others listed1,550 · 26.6%

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

Which institutions lead Behavioral Neuroscience research?

By volume in 2022–2025, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill publishes the most Behavioral Neuroscience research, followed by Harvard University and Emory University.

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States 52 works
  2. 2 Harvard University United States 40 works
  3. 3 Emory University United States 35 works
  4. 4 Yale University United States 33 works
  5. 5 University of California, Los Angeles United States 32 works
  6. 6 University of Pittsburgh United States 29 works
  7. 7 The University of Texas at Austin United States 27 works
  8. 8 Universidade de São Paulo Brazil 25 works
  9. 9 King's College London United Kingdom 25 works
  10. 10 University of Michigan United States 25 works

Who are the leading researchers in Behavioral Neuroscience?

Among the most productive authors in Behavioral Neuroscience, Mika Kivimäki, John J. McGrath and James G. Scott rank highest on the composite score.

  1. 1 Mika Kivimäki United Kingdom · #69 worldwide 6.7k citations · 266 works
  2. 2 John J. McGrath Australia · #105 worldwide 5.3k citations · 193 works
  3. 3 James G. Scott Australia · #112 worldwide 4.3k citations · 219 works
  4. 4 Patrick F. Sullivan United States · #162 worldwide 3.6k citations · 158 works
  5. 5 John T. Cacioppo United States · #364 worldwide 3.7k citations · 119 works
  6. 6 Michael Marmot United Kingdom · #451 worldwide 2.5k citations · 226 works
  7. 7 Andres Metspalu Estonia · #536 worldwide 3k citations · 131 works
  8. 8 Stephan Ripke United States · #629 worldwide 4k citations · 102 works
  9. 9 Michael F. Holick United States · #647 worldwide 2.8k citations · 167 works
  10. 10 Edward T. Bullmore United Kingdom · #709 worldwide 2.6k citations · 165 works

Re-ranked on the composite score from the 3,837 highest-output authors in Behavioral Neuroscience. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Behavioral Neuroscience researchers

Where is Behavioral Neuroscience research done?

The largest centres of Behavioral Neuroscience research in 2022–2025 are Beijing (China), Moscow (Russia), New York (United States) and London (United Kingdom). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Columbia.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beijing China 175 works
  2. 2 Moscow Russia 116 works
  3. 3 New York United States 108 works
  4. 4 London United Kingdom 98 works
  5. 5 Tokyo Japan 88 works
  6. 6 Shanghai China 77 works
  7. 7 Guangzhou China 73 works
  8. 8 Boston United States 70 works
  9. 9 São Paulo Brazil 67 works
  10. 10 Seoul South Korea 64 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. ColumbiaUS · 21.1 works6.8×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Behavioral Neuroscience on the map

Behavioral Neuroscience research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Behavioral Neuroscience?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Medical University of Lodz 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 25.79%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Harvard University: 40, 27.0%Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: 22, 30.1%Medical University of Lodz: 10, 36.6%Yale University: 33, 26.4%Emory University: 35, 22.4%Wayne State University: 21, 13.6%Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science: 9, 21.8%The University of Texas at Austin: 27, 28.9%University of Zurich: 16, 26.2%Xuzhou Medical College: 11, 24.9%Medical University o…Icahn School of Medi…Harvard UniversityYale University
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
1Harvard University United States 58.727.0%4.0×40 +67.5%
2Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai United States 57.030.1%5.6×22 +88.6%
3Medical University of Lodz Poland 52.336.6%8.0×10 -1.9%
4Yale University United States 52.126.4%4.2×33 +34.6%
5Emory University United States 51.822.4%6.4×35 -8.4%
6Wayne State University United States 51.813.6%8.7×21 +82.6%
7Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science United States 51.421.8%34.8×9 +81.5%
8The University of Texas at Austin United States 50.828.9%4.0×27 +46.7%
9University of Zurich Switzerland 50.126.2%3.7×16 +88.9%
10Xuzhou Medical College China 49.724.9%6.4×11 +166.9%

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 Behavioral Neuroscience research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 12% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Stress Responses and Cortisol.

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.

What does Behavioral Neuroscience include?