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Subfield · Materials Science

Ceramics and Composites research

Ceramics and Composites is a subfield of Materials Science. Science Explorer counts 117k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat.

Research works
117k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
12k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
2
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+6%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
53% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Ceramics and Composites

Which countries lead Ceramics and Composites research?

On research quality in 2022-now, China, the United States and the United Kingdom rank highest in Ceramics and Composites. By volume, China and India publish the most (7.1k and 1.6k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 China #2 all time 1.24× citation excellence · 1.05× journals · 100% breadth 12.7% top 10% · 6.1k works
  2. 2 United States #1 all time 0.80× citation excellence · 1.55× journals · 100% breadth 7.4% top 10% · 988 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #5 all time 1.23× citation excellence · 1.45× journals · 100% breadth 10.7% top 10% · 239 works
  4. 4 Germany #3 all time 0.83× citation excellence · 1.40× journals · 100% breadth 7.0% top 10% · 418 works
  5. 5 France #4 all time 0.71× citation excellence · 1.26× journals · 100% breadth 5.6% top 10% · 463 works
  6. 6 India #10 all time 1.01× citation excellence · 0.43× journals · 100% breadth 9.5% top 10% · 1.4k works
  7. 7 Japan #6 all time 0.49× citation excellence · 0.92× journals · 100% breadth 4.1% top 10% · 559 works
  8. 8 South Korea #9 all time 0.74× citation excellence · 0.91× journals · 100% breadth 7.8% top 10% · 266 works
  9. 9 Saudi Arabia #18 all time 1.98× citation excellence · 0.32× journals · 100% breadth 24.2% top 10% · 222 works
  10. 10 Poland #22 all time 0.48× citation excellence · 0.53× journals · 100% breadth 4.0% top 10% · 227 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 14 countries ranked in Ceramics and Composites. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Ceramics and Composites

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 7.1k works
  2. 2 India 1.6k works
  3. 3 United States 1.1k works
  4. 4 Russia 895 works
  5. 5 Japan 630 works
  6. 6 France 501 works
  7. 7 Germany 486 works
  8. 8 Türkiye 345 works
  9. 9 Egypt 330 works
  10. 10 South Korea 307 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: 53.3%India: 11.9%United States: 8.5%Russia: 6.7%6 others listed: 19.6%53%largest
China7,077 · 53.3%India1,575 · 11.9%United States1,125 · 8.5%Russia895 · 6.7%6 others listed2,598 · 19.6%

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

Which institutions lead Ceramics and Composites research?

Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) ranks first in Ceramics and Composites on research quality in 2022-now, followed by Northwestern Polytechnical University and Harbin Institute of Technology.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #1 all time 11.9% top 10% · 440 works
  2. 2 Northwestern Polytechnical University China · Xi'an · #4 all time 25.7% top 10% · 207 works
  3. 3 Harbin Institute of Technology China · Harbin · #5 all time 14.0% top 10% · 202 works
  4. 4 Tsinghua University China · Beijing · #10 all time 13.1% top 10% · 80 works
  5. 5 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #3 all time 13.0% top 10% · 80 works
  6. 6 Xi'an Jiaotong University China · Xi'an · #14 all time 13.8% top 10% · 88 works
  7. 7 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France · Paris · #2 all time 5.6% top 10% · 226 works
  8. 8 Central South University China · Changsha · #38 all time 11.7% top 10% · 167 works
  9. 9 Shandong University China · Jinan · #41 all time 17.2% top 10% · 67 works
  10. 10 Wuhan University of Technology China · Wuhan · #44 all time 13.2% top 10% · 160 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 18 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Ceramics and Composites.

Top 100 Ceramics and Composites institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 504 works
  2. 2 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 397 works
  3. 3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 244 works
  4. 4 Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 236 works
  5. 5 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 227 works
  6. 6 Wuhan University of TechnologyChina 187 works
  7. 7 Central South UniversityChina 182 works
  8. 8 University of Science and Technology BeijingChina 137 works
  9. 9 Wuhan University of Science and TechnologyChina 125 works
  10. 10 Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 103 works

Who are the leading researchers in Ceramics and Composites?

Counting only their work in Ceramics and Composites, Anthony Glyn Evans, Jonathan F. Stebbins and Brian R. Lawn have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Anthony Glyn Evans United States · #2,738 worldwide overall 49.0 of 109 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Jonathan F. Stebbins United States · #53,417 worldwide overall 29.8 of 76 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Brian R. Lawn United States · #13,861 worldwide overall 25.6 of 59 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Michel W. Barsoum United States · #7,579 worldwide overall 24.2 of 60 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Hejun Li China · #404,213 worldwide overall 36.0 of 146 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Yulei Zhang China · #71,046 worldwide overall 21.8 of 53 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Nitin P. Padture United States · #5,103 worldwide overall 20.6 of 44 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Yanchun Zhou China · #112,945 worldwide overall 25.6 of 95 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Jincheng Du United States · #251,638 worldwide overall 23.8 of 69 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 M.I. Sayyed Jordan · #2,151,315 worldwide overall 92.7 of 252 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Ceramics and Composites alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 309,928 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 Ceramics and Composites researchers

What are the most cited papers in Ceramics and Composites?

The most cited paper in Ceramics and Composites is "Ab initio molecular-dynamics simulation of the liquid-metal–amorphous-semiconductor transition in germanium" (Georg Kresse, J. Häfner, 1994), with 23,146 citations. Next come "High-κ gate dielectrics: Current status and materials properties considerations" (5,918) and "On the Temperature Dependence of Cooperative Relaxation Properties in Glass-Forming Liquids" (5,842).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Ab initio molecular-dynamics simulation of the liquid-metal–amorphous-semiconductor transition in germanium Georg Kresse, J. Häfner · Physical review. B, Condensed matter 15 May 1994 23,146
2 High-κ gate dielectrics: Current status and materials properties considerations Glen D. Wilk, Robert M. Wallace, J. Mark Anthony · Journal of Applied Physics 15 May 2001 5,918
3 On the Temperature Dependence of Cooperative Relaxation Properties in Glass-Forming Liquids Gerold Adam, Julian H. Gibbs · The Journal of Chemical Physics Jul 1965 5,842
4 The ‘universal’ dielectric response A.K. Jonscher · Nature Jun 1977 5,602
5 A Critical Evaluation of Indentation Techniques for Measuring Fracture Toughness: I, Direct Crack Measurements G. R. Anstis, Prapaipan Chantikul, Brian R. Lawn et al. · Journal of the American Ceramic Society Sep 1981 5,576
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Ceramics and Composites research done?

The largest centres of Ceramics and Composites research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Xi'an (China), Wuhan (China) and Shanghai (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Corning, Nakhon Pathom and Tomsk.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 1.2k works
  2. 2 Xi'anChina 580 works
  3. 3 WuhanChina 449 works
  4. 4 ShanghaiChina 395 works
  5. 5 ChangshaChina 315 works
  6. 6 HarbinChina 305 works
  7. 7 MoscowRussia 265 works
  8. 8 NanjingChina 249 works
  9. 9 ChengduChina 204 works
  10. 10 JinanChina 191 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. CorningUS · 20.4 works67×
  2. Nakhon PathomTH · 26.6 works61×
  3. TomskRU · 20.4 works29×
  4. JingdezhenCN · 27.0 works25×
  5. FreibergDE · 34.3 works25×
  6. ChernogolovkaRU · 38.7 works24×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Ceramics and Composites than the world average.

See Ceramics and Composites on the map

Ceramics and Composites research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Ceramics and Composites?

Among universities, judged by research, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Harbin Institute of Technology and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences 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 14.86%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Northwestern Polytec…Harbin Institute of …Tsinghua UniversityUniversity of Chines…
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
1Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 83.0#2 (#4)24.6%14.2×236 +10.0%
2Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 76.1#3 (#5)13.8%9.5×227 +18.0%
3University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 72.3#5 (#3)12.7%3.9×93 +11.3%
4Tsinghua UniversityChina 60.6#4 (#10)12.9%2.8×93 +14.0%
5Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 55.6#6 (#14)13.6%4.0×103 +9.5%
6University of Science and Technology BeijingChina 50.5#11 (#22)10.6%12.1×137 +33.0%
7Central South UniversityChina 48.3#8 (#38)11.5%6.5×182 +36.0%
8Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 47.2- (#15)21.8%1.5×61 +9.7%
9Wuhan University of TechnologyChina 46.0#10 (#44)12.6%16.0×187 +57.2%
10University of Science and Technology of ChinaChina 44.9- (#19)14.5%3.1×54 +57.7%

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 Ceramics and Composites, country by country

Is Ceramics and Composites research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 6% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Advanced ceramic materials synthesis.

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 Ceramics and Composites as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.070% in 2024.

still counting0.10%0.20%0.30%Ceramics and Composites0.070% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Ceramics and Composites 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%Ceramics and Composites9.8% 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.

What does Ceramics and Composites include?

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Who leads Ceramics and Composites, on Science Explorer

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

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Discussion

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