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Subfield · Arts and Humanities

Classics research

Classics is a subfield of Arts and Humanities. Science Explorer counts 78k research works in it since 1950. 10.6% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: study of classical antiquity such as ancient Greece and ancient Rome.

Research works
78k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
8.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.6%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
5
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-8%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
24% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Classics

What is Classics research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are History, Literature, Cultural Exchange, Culture, Religion, Manuscripts. Gaining share since 2011-15: Byzantium, Eastern Mediterranean, Cultural Exchange, Cultural History, Medieval Literature. Losing share: Anglo-Saxon, Monasticism, Manuscripts, Medieval.

▲ 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 17 words, with their numbers
  1. History8,263▼ 0.82×3 topics
  2. Literature8,263▼ 0.82×3 topics
  3. Cultural Exchange7,127▲ 1.19×2 topics
  4. Culture6,633▼ 0.81×2 topics
  5. Religion6,633▼ 0.81×2 topics
  6. Manuscripts6,191▼ 0.80×2 topics
  7. Medieval6,191▼ 0.80×2 topics
  8. Byzantium5,497▲ 1.34×1 topic
  9. Eastern Mediterranean5,497▲ 1.34×1 topic
  10. Anglo-Saxon4,561▼ 0.78×1 topic
  11. Monasticism4,561▼ 0.78×1 topic
  12. Cultural History2,958▲ 1.16×1 topic
  13. Medieval Literature2,958▲ 1.16×1 topic
  14. Art2,072◆ 0.89×1 topic
  15. Renaissance2,072◆ 0.89×1 topic
  16. Cantigas de Santa Maria1,630◆ 0.88×1 topic
  17. Iberian1,630◆ 0.88×1 topic

Which countries lead Classics research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom rank highest in Classics. By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (2.5k and 1.6k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 0.94× citation excellence · 1.51× journals · 100% breadth 10.7% top 10% · 2.2k works
  2. 2 Germany #3 all time 1.11× citation excellence · 1.39× journals · 100% breadth 10.2% top 10% · 1.4k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #2 all time 0.99× citation excellence · 1.43× journals · 100% breadth 10.9% top 10% · 1.4k works
  4. 4 France #5 all time 1.03× citation excellence · 1.25× journals · 100% breadth 4.2% top 10% · 1.3k works
  5. 5 Spain #4 all time 1.18× citation excellence · 0.99× journals · 100% breadth 12.8% top 10% · 916 works
  6. 6 Switzerland #6 all time 0.92× citation excellence · 1.86× journals · 100% breadth 9.0% top 10% · 258 works
  7. 7 Italy #11 all time 0.91× citation excellence · 0.67× journals · 100% breadth 9.3% top 10% · 821 works
  8. 8 Poland #14 all time 1.35× citation excellence · 0.52× journals · 100% breadth 10.8% top 10% · 391 works
  9. 9 Canada #7 all time 0.57× citation excellence · 1.20× journals · 100% breadth 7.3% top 10% · 272 works
  10. 10 Russia #20 all time 0.90× citation excellence · 0.21× journals · 100% breadth 9.8% top 10% · 507 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 11 countries ranked in Classics. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Classics

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 2.5k works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 1.6k works
  3. 3 Germany 1.5k works
  4. 4 France 1.4k works
  5. 5 Spain 1k works
  6. 6 Italy 878 works
  7. 7 Russia 549 works
  8. 8 Poland 420 works
  9. 9 Türkiye 402 works
  10. 10 Canada 300 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: 23.8%United Kingdom: 15.0%Germany: 14.3%France: 12.9%6 others listed: 34.0%24%largest
United States2,491 · 23.8%United Kingdom1,571 · 15.0%Germany1,500 · 14.3%France1,357 · 12.9%6 others listed3,568 · 34.0%

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

Which institutions lead Classics research?

University of Oxford (United Kingdom) ranks first in Classics on research quality in 2022-now, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and University of Cambridge.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of Oxford United Kingdom · Oxford · #1 all time 11.6% top 10% · 199 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France · Paris · #3 all time 3.7% top 10% · 361 works
  3. 3 University of Cambridge United Kingdom · Cambridge · #2 all time 12.8% top 10% · 108 works
  4. 4 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom · Edinburgh · #11 all time 4.5% top 10% · 81 works
  5. 5 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Germany · Munich · #10 all time 10.8% top 10% · 64 works
  6. 6 Universidad Complutense de Madrid Spain · Madrid · #29 all time 16.6% top 10% · 95 works
  7. 7 Ca' Foscari University of Venice Italy · Venice · #94 all time 9.9% top 10% · 101 works
  8. 8 Universidade de Santiago de Compostela Spain · Santiago de Compostela · #70 all time 10.5% top 10% · 66 works
  9. 9 Film Independent United States · Los Angeles 9.5% top 10% · 65 works
  10. 10 Russian Academy of Sciences Russia · Moscow 9.6% top 10% · 145 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 10 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Classics.

Top 100 Classics institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 379 works
  2. 2 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 226 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 158 works
  4. 4 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 118 works
  5. 5 Ca' Foscari University of VeniceItaly 111 works
  6. 6 Universidad Complutense de MadridSpain 105 works
  7. 7 University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 92 works
  8. 8 Film IndependentUnited States 76 works
  9. 9 Universidade de Santiago de CompostelaSpain 68 works
  10. 10 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 66 works

Who are the leading researchers in Classics?

Counting only their work in Classics, Janet L. Nelson, Leonard Neidorf and Derek A. Pearsall have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Janet L. Nelson United Kingdom · #261,921 worldwide overall 20.6 of 58 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Leonard Neidorf China · #259,973 worldwide overall 18.8 of 44 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Derek A. Pearsall United Kingdom · #325,132 worldwide overall 18.8 of 67 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Caroline Walker Bynum United States · #120,218 worldwide overall 15.0 of 34 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Cyril Mango United States · #263,408 worldwide overall 16.1 of 39 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 C. Warren Hollister United States · #283,106 worldwide overall 12.7 of 36 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Alastair J. Minnis United States · #249,764 worldwide overall 11.5 of 25 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Siegfried Wenzel United States · #400,642 worldwide overall 13.0 of 41 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Richard W. Pfaff United States · #359,627 worldwide overall 12.8 of 40 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Timothy David Barnes Canada · #51,057 worldwide overall 10.8 of 27 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Classics alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 124,818 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 Classics researchers

What are the most cited papers in Classics?

The most cited paper in Classics is "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity" (Peter Brown, 1971), with 906 citations. Next come "From memory to written record: England 1066–1307" (870) and "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword" (726).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity Peter Brown · The Journal of Roman Studies Nov 1971 906
2 From memory to written record: England 1066–1307 Robert N. Swanson · History of European Ideas Sep 1994 870
3 The Chrysanthemum and the Sword Ruth Fulton Benedict · Psychologists in Word and Image Book chapter 27 Mar 1995 726
4 Early Greek elegy, symposium and public festival E. L. Bowie · The Journal of Hellenic Studies Nov 1986 556
5 The Epic Successors of Virgil: A Study in the Dynamics of a Tradition William S. Anderson, Philip Russell Hardie · The Classical World 1995 528
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Classics research done?

The largest centres of Classics research in 2022-now are Paris (France), Moscow (Russia), Oxford (United Kingdom) and Madrid (Spain).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 ParisFrance 399 works
  2. 2 MoscowRussia 284 works
  3. 3 OxfordUnited Kingdom 243 works
  4. 4 MadridSpain 237 works
  5. 5 LondonUnited Kingdom 201 works
  6. 6 RomeItaly 135 works
  7. 7 New YorkUnited States 134 works
  8. 8 BerlinGermany 127 works
  9. 9 ViennaAustria 126 works
  10. 10 CambridgeUnited Kingdom 121 works
See Classics on the map

Classics research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Classics?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and University of Edinburgh 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%mean 10.17%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Cambri…University of OxfordPrinceton UniversityUniversity of Edinbu…
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
1University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 84.7#1 (#1)11.2%13.4×226 +22.0%
2University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 65.0#3 (#2)12.3%8.2×118 -21.1%
3University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 50.6#4 (#11)4.9%8.8×92 +114.8%
4Princeton UniversityUnited States 48.6- (#5)10.0%7.8×41 +4.3%
5Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 47.0#5 (#10)10.8%6.3×66 -1.7%
6University of ChicagoUnited States 45.0- (#7)5.1%4.7×47 +28.4%
7Universidad Complutense de MadridSpain 43.9#6 (#29)15.8%9.9×105 +8.5%
8Yale UniversityUnited States 42.9- (#6)11.3%2.4×31 -1.4%
9University of St AndrewsUnited Kingdom 42.6- (#8)7.5%25.2×64 -42.7%
10Durham UniversityUnited Kingdom 38.4- (#16)12.8%12.1×53 -30.6%

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 Classics, country by country

Is Classics research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 8% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021. The fastest-growing topics are Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies.

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 Classics as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.056% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Classics0.049% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Classics 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%Classics9.4% 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. Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies+1%
  2. Byzantine Studies and History-4%
  3. Renaissance Literature and Culture-6%
  4. Medieval Iberian Studies-12%
  5. Medieval Literature and History-17%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

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

What does Classics include?

Medieval Literature and …26kMedieval Literature and History: 26k fractional worksByzantine Studies and Hi…20kByzantine Studies and History: 20k fractional worksHistorical, Literary, and Cultural Studies: 13k fractional worksRenaissance Literature and Culture: 11k fractional worksMedieval Iberian Studies: 7,322 fractional works

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

Share who leads Classics

Who leads Classics, on Science Explorer

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

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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

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