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Subfield · Psychology

Clinical Psychology research

Clinical Psychology is a subfield of Psychology. Science Explorer counts 980k research works in it since 1950. 20.6% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: integration of science and clinical knowledge for the purpose of relieving psychologically based dysfunction.

Research works
980k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
202k
per year above
Top-10% rate
20.6%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
38
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+52%
the tick is no change

What is Clinical Psychology research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2019–23, its most used keywords are Mental Health, Depression, Psychological Impact, Psychological Distress, Resilience, Anxiety. Gaining share since 2009–13: COVID-19, Pandemic, Anxiety, Psychological Distress, Psychological Impact. Losing share: Group Therapy, Psychoanalysis, Clinical Practice, Psychopathology.

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

Size is the world's fractional works in 2019–23 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2009–13. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Mental Health165k▲ 1.19×15 topics
  2. Depression92k▲ 1.49×6 topics
  3. Psychological Impact58k▲ 3.1×3 topics
  4. Psychological Distress52k▲ 5.2×4 topics
  5. Resilience48k▼ 0.84×5 topics
  6. Anxiety47k▲ 6.9×3 topics
  7. Adolescents43k▼ 0.82×3 topics
  8. COVID-1942k▲ 26×1 topic
  9. Pandemic42k▲ 26×1 topic
  10. Coping Strategies37k▲ 1.21×4 topics
  11. Psychopathology35k▼ 0.73×3 topics
  12. Parenting30k▼ 0.75×2 topics
  13. Emotion Regulation29k▼ 0.86×2 topics
  14. Stress29k▲ 1.29×2 topics
  15. Treatment26k▼ 0.82×4 topics
  16. Quality of Life25k◆ 1.00×4 topics
  17. Trauma23k◆ 1.02×3 topics
  18. Children22k▼ 0.74×1 topic
  19. Developmental Trajectories22k▼ 0.74×1 topic
  20. Risk Factors21k◆ 0.93×2 topics
  21. Epidemiology20k◆ 0.88×4 topics
  22. Childhood Trauma19k▼ 0.76×2 topics
  23. Prevalence19k▼ 0.78×3 topics
  24. Social Support19k◆ 1.08×2 topics
  25. Clinical Practice17k▼ 0.71×2 topics
  26. Neurobiological Correlates17k▼ 0.76×3 topics
  27. Cognitive Therapy16k◆ 0.99×3 topics
  28. Elderly14k◆ 1.10×1 topic
  29. Nursing14k◆ 1.10×1 topic
  30. Adversity14k▲ 1.56×1 topic
  31. Psychological Resilience14k▲ 1.56×1 topic
  32. Immigrant14k▲ 1.24×1 topic
  33. Refugee14k▲ 1.24×1 topic
  34. Caregiver Well-Being13k◆ 0.95×1 topic
  35. Parenting Stress13k◆ 0.95×1 topic
  36. Group Therapy12k▼ 0.66×2 topics
  37. Psychoanalysis11k▼ 0.69×3 topics
  38. Body Image11k▼ 0.82×1 topic
  39. Eating Disorders11k▼ 0.82×1 topic
  40. Adverse Experiences10k◆ 0.87×1 topic

Which countries lead Clinical Psychology research?

On research quality in 2022–2025, the United States, China and the United Kingdom rank highest in Clinical Psychology. By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (52k and 15k works in 2022–2025).

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States · #1 all time 19.6% top 10% · 52k works
  2. 2 China · #6 all time 32.7% top 10% · 12k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom · #2 all time 23.8% top 10% · 15k works
  4. 4 Australia · #4 all time 29.6% top 10% · 7.5k works
  5. 5 Germany · #5 all time 22.0% top 10% · 7.9k works
  6. 6 Canada · #3 all time 21.3% top 10% · 8.1k works
  7. 7 Italy · #8 all time 25.6% top 10% · 4.9k works
  8. 8 Spain · #9 all time 18.6% top 10% · 5.8k works
  9. 9 India · #12 all time 8.6% top 10% · 9k works
  10. 10 Netherlands · #7 all time 27.6% top 10% · 3.3k 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 76 countries ranked in Clinical Psychology. Composite of field-normalised excellence (50%), output (30%) and citations (20%); the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Clinical Psychology

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States 52k works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 15k works
  3. 3 China 12k works
  4. 4 Brazil 11k works
  5. 5 India 9k works
  6. 6 Türkiye 8.2k works
  7. 7 Canada 8.1k works
  8. 8 Germany 7.9k works
  9. 9 Australia 7.5k works
  10. 10 Indonesia 6.6k 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.

United States: 38.0%United Kingdom: 10.8%China: 8.5%Brazil: 7.8%6 others listed: 34.8%38%largest
United States52k · 38.0%United Kingdom15k · 10.8%China12k · 8.5%Brazil11k · 7.8%6 others listed47k · 34.8%

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

Which institutions lead Clinical Psychology research?

King's College London (United Kingdom) ranks first in Clinical Psychology on research quality in 2022–2025, followed by University College London and Harvard University.

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 King's College London United Kingdom · London · #3 all time 32.3% top 10% · 582 works
  2. 2 University College London United Kingdom · London · #5 all time 33.0% top 10% · 659 works
  3. 3 Harvard University United States · Cambridge · #2 all time 31.2% top 10% · 561 works
  4. 4 University of Oxford United Kingdom · Oxford · #11 all time 31.8% top 10% · 375 works
  5. 5 The University of Melbourne Australia · Melbourne · #30 all time 31.5% top 10% · 509 works
  6. 6 University of Toronto Canada · Toronto · #17 all time 24.9% top 10% · 598 works
  7. 7 Columbia University United States · New York · #4 all time 27.3% top 10% · 434 works
  8. 8 Yale University United States · New Haven · #1 all time 28.0% top 10% · 512 works
  9. 9 Johns Hopkins University United States · Baltimore · #10 all time 26.9% top 10% · 473 works
  10. 10 The University of Queensland Australia · Brisbane · #48 all time 32.3% top 10% · 283 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 738 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Clinical Psychology.

Top 100 Clinical Psychology institutions

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States 1k works
  2. 2 University College London United Kingdom 659 works
  3. 3 University of Toronto Canada 598 works
  4. 4 King's College London United Kingdom 582 works
  5. 5 Harvard University United States 561 works
  6. 6 Universidade de São Paulo Brazil 538 works
  7. 7 Sapienza University of Rome Italy 519 works
  8. 8 Yale University United States 512 works
  9. 9 The University of Melbourne Australia 509 works
  10. 10 Johns Hopkins University United States 473 works

Who are the leading researchers in Clinical Psychology?

Among the most productive authors in Clinical Psychology, Michel Foucault, Ronald C. Kessler and Sigmund Freud rank highest on the composite score.

  1. 1 Michel Foucault Poland · #5 worldwide 4.6k citations · 194 works
  2. 2 Ronald C. Kessler United States · #14 worldwide 9.8k citations · 232 works
  3. 3 Sigmund Freud United States · #25 worldwide 2.7k citations · 174 works
  4. 4 Ali Bijani Iran · #32 worldwide 5.6k citations · 168 works
  5. 5 Sander L. Gilman United States · #37 worldwide 4.2k citations · 154 works
  6. 6 Perminder S. Sachdev Australia · #56 worldwide 4.6k citations · 215 works
  7. 7 Josep María Haro Spain · #63 worldwide 6.4k citations · 180 works
  8. 8 Louisa Degenhardt Australia · #80 worldwide 5.7k citations · 164 works
  9. 9 James G. Scott Australia · #112 worldwide 4.3k citations · 219 works
  10. 10 Wilmar B. Schaufeli Netherlands · #130 worldwide 5.3k citations · 157 works

Re-ranked on the composite score from the 5,481 highest-output authors in Clinical Psychology. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Clinical Psychology researchers

Where is Clinical Psychology research done?

The largest centres of Clinical Psychology research in 2022–2025 are London (United Kingdom), New York (United States), Tehran (Iran) and São Paulo (Brazil). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Prien am Chiemsee and Hawthorn East.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 London United Kingdom 4.3k works
  2. 2 New York United States 2.8k works
  3. 3 Tehran Iran 2.1k works
  4. 4 São Paulo Brazil 2k works
  5. 5 Paris France 1.9k works
  6. 6 Beijing China 1.9k works
  7. 7 Istanbul Türkiye 1.9k works
  8. 8 Melbourne Australia 1.9k works
  9. 9 Toronto Canada 1.5k works
  10. 10 Boston United States 1.5k works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Prien am ChiemseeDE · 21.7 works38×
  2. Hawthorn EastAU · 26.3 works27×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Clinical Psychology on the map

Clinical Psychology research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Clinical Psychology?

Among universities, judged by research, Iranshahr University, University College London and Education University of Hong Kong 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 31.37%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Iranshahr University: 175, 15.5%University College London: 659, 33.0%Education University of Hong Kong: 131, 39.7%King's College London: 582, 32.3%Flinders University: 201, 34.4%Australian Catholic University: 109, 35.5%The University of Melbourne: 509, 31.5%University of Haifa: 284, 25.5%Deakin University: 290, 35.1%Harvard University: 561, 31.2%Education University…University College L…King's College LondonIranshahr 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
1Iranshahr University Iran 56.815.5%9.9×175 +274.3%
2University College London United Kingdom 56.233.0%2.3×659 +46.7%
3Education University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 54.239.7%4.2×131 +77.5%
4King's College London United Kingdom 54.132.3%3.6×582 -0.8%
5Flinders University Australia 53.434.4%4.2×201 +89.8%
6Australian Catholic University Australia 53.235.5%4.9×109 +141.1%
7The University of Melbourne Australia 52.831.5%2.5×509 +56.3%
8University of Haifa Israel 51.325.5%5.9×284 +69.7%
9Deakin University Australia 50.935.1%3.0×290 +41.7%
10Harvard University United States 50.431.2%2.1×561 +22.4%

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 Clinical Psychology research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 52% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2021. The fastest-growing topics are Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions, COVID-19 and Mental Health and Health and Well-being Studies.

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.

  1. Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions+472%
  2. COVID-19 and Mental Health+440%
  3. Health and Well-being Studies+297%
  4. Resilience and Mental Health+246%
  5. Migration, Health and Trauma+171%
  6. Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology+159%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2005–09 to 2015–19. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Clinical Psychology include?

Child and Adolescent Psy…99kChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development: 99k fractional worksCOVID-19 and Mental Health57kCOVID-19 and Mental Health: 57k fractional worksHealth and Well-being Studies: 52k fractional worksFamily and Disability Support Research: 51k fractional worksPsychotherapy Techniques…46kPsychotherapy Techniques and Applications: 46k fractional worksEating Disorders and Behaviors: 45k fractional worksMigration, Health and Trauma: 43k fractional worksResilience and Mental Health: 43k fractional worksChild Abuse and Trauma: 41k fractional worksGrief, Bereavement, and Mental Health: 36k fractional worksPsychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research: 35k fractional worksSuicide and Self-Harm Studies: 34k fractional works

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