Science Explorer Back to mapMap
Discussion
Subfield · Engineering

Building and Construction research

Building and Construction is a subfield of Engineering. Science Explorer counts 479k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: former West German trade union (1949–1995).

Research works
479k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
48k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
22
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+33%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
42% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Building and Construction

What is Building and Construction research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Construction, Durability Performance, Energy Simulation, Energy Efficiency, Sustainability, Deep Learning. Gaining share since 2011-15: 3D Printing, Concrete Extrusion, Concrete Properties, Recycled Aggregate, Short-Term Forecasting. Losing share: Dyeing, Textiles, Anaerobic Digestion, Biogas Production.

▲ gaining share of this field◆ holding its share▼ losing share

Size is the world's fractional works in 2021-25 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2011-15. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Construction34k◆ 1.04×2 topics
  2. Durability Performance26k◆ 1.08×2 topics
  3. Energy Simulation25k◆ 0.90×2 topics
  4. Energy Efficiency24k▼ 0.83×4 topics
  5. Sustainability23k◆ 1.05×2 topics
  6. Deep Learning23k▲ 1.40×2 topics
  7. Urban Traffic23k▲ 1.40×2 topics
  8. Building Energy Consumption21k◆ 0.97×1 topic
  9. Thermal Comfort21k◆ 0.97×1 topic
  10. Concrete Strengthening17k◆ 0.93×1 topic
  11. Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites17k◆ 0.93×1 topic
  12. Short-Term Forecasting17k▲ 1.41×1 topic
  13. Traffic Flow17k▲ 1.41×1 topic
  14. BIM16k▲ 1.20×1 topic
  15. Prefabrication16k▲ 1.20×1 topic
  16. 3D Printing14k▲ 1.71×1 topic
  17. Concrete Extrusion14k▲ 1.71×1 topic
  18. Sustainable Construction12k◆ 1.03×2 topics
  19. Circular Economy9,574◆ 1.07×2 topics
  20. Environmental Impact8,726◆ 1.08×2 topics
  21. Concrete Properties8,726▲ 1.59×1 topic
  22. Recycled Aggregate8,726▲ 1.59×1 topic
  23. Utilization8,413◆ 1.10×1 topic
  24. Waste Materials8,413◆ 1.10×1 topic
  25. Sustainable Development8,410◆ 0.92×2 topics
  26. Environmental Assessment Tools8,142◆ 1.00×1 topic
  27. Green Building8,142◆ 1.00×1 topic
  28. Mechanical Properties7,983▼ 0.82×2 topics
  29. Anaerobic Digestion7,162▼ 0.80×1 topic
  30. Biogas Production7,162▼ 0.80×1 topic
  31. City Logistics6,970▼ 0.81×1 topic
  32. Last Mile Delivery6,970▼ 0.81×1 topic
  33. IoT6,456▲ 1.38×1 topic
  34. Smart Parking6,456▲ 1.38×1 topic
  35. Dyeing5,318▼ 0.54×1 topic
  36. Textiles5,318▼ 0.54×1 topic
  37. Mining Industry5,211◆ 1.04×1 topic
  38. Social License to Operate5,211◆ 1.04×1 topic
  39. Space Syntax4,973◆ 0.94×1 topic
  40. Street Networks4,973◆ 0.94×1 topic

Which countries lead Building and Construction research?

On research quality in 2022-now, China, the United States and the United Kingdom rank highest in Building and Construction. By volume, China and India publish the most (37k and 12k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 China #1 all time 1.31× citation excellence · 1.42× journals · 100% breadth 14.5% top 10% · 33k works
  2. 2 United States #2 all time 0.99× citation excellence · 1.46× journals · 100% breadth 10.6% top 10% · 9.2k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #3 all time 1.34× citation excellence · 1.39× journals · 100% breadth 14.1% top 10% · 3.8k works
  4. 4 Australia #4 all time 1.65× citation excellence · 1.21× journals · 100% breadth 18.6% top 10% · 2.6k works
  5. 5 Canada #8 all time 1.17× citation excellence · 1.18× journals · 100% breadth 11.4% top 10% · 2.6k works
  6. 6 Germany #5 all time 0.88× citation excellence · 1.36× journals · 100% breadth 8.1% top 10% · 3.3k works
  7. 7 Singapore #9 all time 1.85× citation excellence · 1.67× journals · 100% breadth 21.7% top 10% · 552 works
  8. 8 Italy #7 all time 1.27× citation excellence · 0.72× journals · 100% breadth 11.5% top 10% · 3.8k works
  9. 9 Spain #6 all time 1.16× citation excellence · 0.99× journals · 100% breadth 9.9% top 10% · 2.4k works
  10. 10 Switzerland #10 all time 1.25× citation excellence · 1.88× journals · 100% breadth 12.3% top 10% · 705 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 71 countries ranked in Building and Construction. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Building and Construction

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 37k works
  2. 2 India 12k works
  3. 3 United States 11k works
  4. 4 Brazil 4.8k works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 4.3k works
  6. 6 Italy 4.3k works
  7. 7 Indonesia 4.1k works
  8. 8 Türkiye 4.1k works
  9. 9 Germany 3.7k works
  10. 10 Russia 3.6k 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.

China: 41.5%India: 13.7%United States: 12.0%Brazil: 5.5%6 others listed: 27.2%42%largest
China37k · 41.5%India12k · 13.7%United States11k · 12.0%Brazil4,833 · 5.5%6 others listed24k · 27.2%

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

Which institutions lead Building and Construction research?

Tongji University (China) ranks first in Building and Construction on research quality in 2022-now, followed by Tsinghua University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Tongji University China · Shanghai · #3 all time 17.0% top 10% · 956 works
  2. 2 Tsinghua University China · Beijing · #1 all time 20.8% top 10% · 533 works
  3. 3 Hong Kong Polytechnic University China · Hong Kong · #5 all time 26.4% top 10% · 543 works
  4. 4 University of Hong Kong China · Pok Fu Lam · #4 all time 28.1% top 10% · 245 works
  5. 5 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #6 all time 18.6% top 10% · 537 works
  6. 6 ETH Zurich Switzerland · Zurich · #2 all time 15.2% top 10% · 216 works
  7. 7 Chongqing University China · Chongqing · #8 all time 17.8% top 10% · 425 works
  8. 8 Hunan University China · Changsha · #12 all time 21.8% top 10% · 275 works
  9. 9 Southeast University China · Nanjing · #19 all time 20.0% top 10% · 745 works
  10. 10 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology China · Hong Kong · #14 all time 28.2% top 10% · 130 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 438 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Building and Construction.

Top 100 Building and Construction institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Tongji UniversityChina 1.1k works
  2. 2 Southeast UniversityChina 822 works
  3. 3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 737 works
  4. 4 Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 605 works
  5. 5 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 602 works
  6. 6 Tsinghua UniversityChina 587 works
  7. 7 Xi'an University of Architecture and TechnologyChina 486 works
  8. 8 Politecnico di MilanoItaly 477 works
  9. 9 Chongqing UniversityChina 471 works
  10. 10 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 461 works

Who are the leading researchers in Building and Construction?

Counting only their work in Building and Construction, Chi Sun Poon, Jorge de Brito and Jianzhuang Xiao have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Chi Sun Poon China · #227 worldwide overall 113.3 of 210 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Jorge de Brito Portugal · #17,319 worldwide overall 98.3 of 265 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Jianzhuang Xiao China · #10,964 worldwide overall 75.2 of 188 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Lin‐Hai Han China · #15,299 worldwide overall 68.8 of 152 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Victor C. Li United States · #10,540 worldwide overall 67.5 of 169 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Tianzhen Hong United States · #3,605 worldwide overall 57.0 of 113 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 M. Santamouris Greece · #12,491 worldwide overall 61.4 of 158 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 İrini Angelidaki Denmark · #21,155 worldwide overall 58.9 of 134 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Vivian W.Y. Tam Australia · #24,122 worldwide overall 63.9 of 198 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Togay Ozbakkaloglu United States · #8,178 worldwide overall 50.8 of 114 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Building and Construction alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 963,779 ranked researchers with a paper here. Each paper counts once, so many strong papers outrank one famous one, and a long record of ordinary papers does not climb. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Building and Construction researchers

What are the most cited papers in Building and Construction?

The most cited paper in Building and Construction is "Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment" (Robert D. Benford, David A. Snow, 2000), with 9,915 citations. Next come "The Production of Space" (9,675) and "Theoretical Stress‐Strain Model for Confined Concrete" (8,474).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment Robert D. Benford, David A. Snow · Annual Review of Sociology Review Aug 2000 9,915
2 The Production of Space Erik A. Swyngedouw, Henri Lefebvre · Economic Geography Jul 1992 9,675
3 Theoretical Stress‐Strain Model for Confined Concrete J.B. Mander, M. J. N. Priestley, R. Park · Journal of Structural Engineering Sep 1988 8,474
4 Additive manufacturing (3D printing): A review of materials, methods, applications and challenges Tuan Ngo, Alireza Hosseinzadeh Kashani, Gabriele Imbalzano et al. · Composites Part B Engineering Open access 13 Feb 2018 8,400
5 Gmsh: A 3‐D finite element mesh generator with built‐in pre‐ and post‐processing facilities Christophe Geuzaine, Jean‐François Remacle · International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering Open access 7 May 2009 7,914
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Building and Construction research done?

The largest centres of Building and Construction research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Nanjing (China) and Xi'an (China).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 5.9k works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 2.6k works
  3. 3 NanjingChina 2.4k works
  4. 4 Xi'anChina 1.7k works
  5. 5 WuhanChina 1.7k works
  6. 6 GuangzhouChina 1.4k works
  7. 7 MoscowRussia 1.3k works
  8. 8 ChennaiIndia 1.2k works
  9. 9 Hong KongChina 1.1k works
  10. 10 ChangshaChina 1.1k works
See Building and Construction on the map

Building and Construction research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Building and Construction?

Among universities, judged by research, Tsinghua University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Tongji University score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 22.17%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Hong K…Hong Kong Polytechni…Tsinghua UniversityTongji University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Standingthis field's institution ranking, three quarters all time and a quarter 2022-now
50%
Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
20%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
5%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
15%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
5%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
5%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreRank in field (all time)Top 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Tsinghua UniversityChina 84.5#2 (#1)20.1%2.0×587 +31.1%
2Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 83.2#3 (#5)25.7%5.5×605 +48.9%
3Tongji UniversityChina 80.8#1 (#3)16.5%5.4×1,055 +43.4%
4University of Hong KongChina 79.8#4 (#4)26.6%2.3×277 +47.7%
5ETH ZurichSwitzerland 74.4#6 (#2)15.3%2.7×237 +20.4%
6Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 70.3#12 (#7)23.8%2.1×210 +15.2%
7City University of Hong KongChina 69.4#19 (#10)26.1%2.4×173 +37.3%
8National University of SingaporeSingapore 68.6#11 (#9)22.8%1.7×256 +19.3%
9Hong Kong University of Science and TechnologyChina 68.4#10 (#14)27.1%2.8×149 +114.9%
10Chongqing UniversityChina 67.0#7 (#8)17.7%3.4×471 +55.0%

Universities only. The score blends standing (50%), citation excellence (20%), size (15%), specialisation (5%), growth (5%), international reach (5%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise. Standing is the score in this field's institution ranking, three quarters over all time and a quarter 2022-now; excellence averages the two windows too. Four years alone undercount fields such as AI, where many conference and arXiv papers from 2022 on carry no affiliation in the data.

Every institution in Building and Construction, country by country

Is Building and Construction research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 33% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Traffic Prediction and Management Techniques, Innovations in Concrete and Construction Materials and Sustainable Design and Development.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

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

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Building and Construction as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.64% in 2024.

still counting0.25%0.50%0.75%Building and Construction0.64% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Building and Construction over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Building and Construction10.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

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.

  1. Traffic Prediction and Management Techniques+79%
  2. Innovations in Concrete and Construction Materials+60%
  3. Sustainable Design and Development+56%
  4. BIM and Construction Integration+52%
  5. Recycled Aggregate Concrete Performance+51%
  6. Dyeing and Modifying Textile Fibers+40%
  7. Construction Management and Sustainability-29%
  8. Building energy efficiency and sustainability-43%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2018-21 to 2022-25. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Building and Construction include?

Building Energy and Comfort Optimization: 60k fractional worksStructural Behavior of Reinforced Concrete: 52k fractional worksBIM and Construction Int…45kBIM and Construction Integration: 45k fractional worksTraffic Prediction and M…38kTraffic Prediction and Management Techniques: 38k fractional worksInnovations in Concrete and Construction Materials: 34k fractional worksDyeing and Modifying Textile Fibers: 26k fractional worksRecycling and utilization of industrial and municipal waste in materials production: 25k fractional worksAnaerobic Digestion and Biogas Production: 24k fractional worksUrban and Freight Transport Logistics: 22k fractional worksSustainable Building Design and Assessment: 21k fractional worksRecycled Aggregate Concrete Performance: 19k fractional worksWood Treatment and Properties: 17k fractional works

Area is fractional works in that topic. Every name below is a page of its own.

Share who leads Building and Construction

Who leads Building and Construction, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Building and Construction, for a post or a slide.

Download the card

1200 × 630 PNG, sized for social posts, drawn from the latest snapshot.

The leading institutions' badges6Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

Discussion

Ask a question or share a note about Building and Construction. Keep it to the research: no personal attacks, advertising or links. Any reader can report a post, which collapses it for everyone until it is opened.