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Subfield · Social Sciences

Communication research

Communication is a subfield of Social Sciences. Science Explorer counts 252k 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: act of conveying intended meaning.

Research works
252k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
25k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
16
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+7%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
24% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Communication

What is Communication research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Social Media, Digital Divide, Political Participation, Communication, Mediatization, Content Analysis. Gaining share since 2011-15: Communication Theory, Learning Environment, Business, Intercultural Communication, COVID-19. Losing share: Collaboration, Wikipedia, Knowledge Sharing, Virtual Communities.

▲ 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. Social Media36k▼ 0.82×6 topics
  2. Digital Divide17k◆ 1.01×1 topic
  3. Political Participation17k◆ 1.01×1 topic
  4. Communication13k◆ 1.13×5 topics
  5. Mediatization11k◆ 0.94×2 topics
  6. Content Analysis11k▼ 0.83×2 topics
  7. Digital Journalism11k▼ 0.83×2 topics
  8. Digital Media9,768▲ 1.38×3 topics
  9. Social Capital9,649▼ 0.62×2 topics
  10. Crisis Communication9,625▲ 1.55×2 topics
  11. Agenda Setting9,189◆ 0.92×1 topic
  12. Media Framing9,189◆ 0.92×1 topic
  13. Social Networks8,654▲ 1.61×2 topics
  14. Education8,348▲ 2.3×2 topics
  15. Globalization8,348▲ 2.3×2 topics
  16. Information Quality7,846▲ 1.26×2 topics
  17. Business7,233▲ 3.8×1 topic
  18. Intercultural Communication7,233▲ 3.8×1 topic
  19. Knowledge Sharing6,656▼ 0.45×1 topic
  20. Virtual Communities6,656▼ 0.45×1 topic
  21. Disaster Management6,632▲ 1.18×1 topic
  22. Public Relations6,632▲ 1.18×1 topic
  23. COVID-196,144▲ 3.3×1 topic
  24. Media System6,144▲ 3.3×1 topic
  25. Journalism6,010◆ 0.87×3 topics
  26. Cultural Intelligence5,590◆ 0.96×1 topic
  27. Intercultural Competence5,590◆ 0.96×1 topic
  28. Organizational Communication4,601▲ 2.2×2 topics
  29. Swearing3,087▲ 1.60×1 topic
  30. Taboo Language3,087▲ 1.60×1 topic
  31. Communication Theory2,993▲ 5.3×1 topic
  32. Learning Environment2,993▲ 5.3×1 topic
  33. Audio Storytelling2,973◆ 1.13×1 topic
  34. Podcasting2,973◆ 1.13×1 topic
  35. Research2,509▼ 0.71×1 topic
  36. Spain2,509▼ 0.71×1 topic
  37. Collaboration1,702▼ 0.39×1 topic
  38. Wikipedia1,702▼ 0.39×1 topic
  39. Media1,658▼ 0.56×2 topics
  40. Digital Age1,608◆ 1.07×1 topic

Which countries lead Communication research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, Germany and Spain rank highest in Communication. By volume, the United States and Indonesia publish the most (9.4k and 5k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 1.06× citation excellence · 1.55× journals · 100% breadth 12.5% top 10% · 8.3k works
  2. 2 Germany #3 all time 1.40× citation excellence · 1.39× journals · 100% breadth 11.0% top 10% · 2.5k works
  3. 3 Spain #2 all time 1.40× citation excellence · 0.99× journals · 100% breadth 14.3% top 10% · 3.9k works
  4. 4 United Kingdom #4 all time 1.18× citation excellence · 1.44× journals · 100% breadth 14.7% top 10% · 2.2k works
  5. 5 China #5 all time 1.18× citation excellence · 1.06× journals · 100% breadth 13.6% top 10% · 3.7k works
  6. 6 Netherlands #7 all time 1.69× citation excellence · 1.44× journals · 100% breadth 20.9% top 10% · 667 works
  7. 7 Australia #6 all time 1.22× citation excellence · 1.18× journals · 100% breadth 15.6% top 10% · 1.2k works
  8. 8 Switzerland #9 all time 1.36× citation excellence · 1.86× journals · 100% breadth 15.2% top 10% · 403 works
  9. 9 Canada #8 all time 0.98× citation excellence · 1.19× journals · 100% breadth 11.5% top 10% · 928 works
  10. 10 Sweden #11 all time 1.23× citation excellence · 1.38× journals · 100% breadth 14.1% top 10% · 484 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 51 countries ranked in Communication. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Communication

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 9.4k works
  2. 2 Indonesia 5k works
  3. 3 Spain 4.3k works
  4. 4 China 4.2k works
  5. 5 Russia 3.9k works
  6. 6 Brazil 3k works
  7. 7 Germany 2.8k works
  8. 8 United Kingdom 2.5k works
  9. 9 Türkiye 1.9k works
  10. 10 India 1.6k 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: 24.5%Indonesia: 13.1%Spain: 11.3%China: 10.9%6 others listed: 40.4%24%largest
United States9,376 · 24.5%Indonesia5,018 · 13.1%Spain4,314 · 11.3%China4,163 · 10.9%6 others listed15k · 40.4%

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

Which institutions lead Communication research?

University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) ranks first in Communication on research quality in 2022-now, followed by University of Vienna and University of Oxford.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of Amsterdam Netherlands · Amsterdam · #6 all time 28.7% top 10% · 143 works
  2. 2 University of Vienna Austria · Vienna · #30 all time 25.1% top 10% · 118 works
  3. 3 University of Oxford United Kingdom · Oxford · #9 all time 27.5% top 10% · 89 works
  4. 4 The University of Texas at Austin United States · Austin · #4 all time 19.2% top 10% · 110 works
  5. 5 University of Zurich Switzerland · Zurich · #11 all time 21.1% top 10% · 107 works
  6. 6 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Germany · Munich · #15 all time 23.3% top 10% · 100 works
  7. 7 Stanford University United States · Stanford · #3 all time 23.9% top 10% · 67 works
  8. 8 Universitat Pompeu Fabra Spain · Barcelona · #1 all time 21.7% top 10% · 84 works
  9. 9 Freie Universität Berlin Germany · Berlin · #67 all time 17.6% top 10% · 90 works
  10. 10 University of Washington United States · Seattle · #7 all time 18.3% top 10% · 80 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 115 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Communication.

Top 100 Communication institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Universidad Complutense de MadridSpain 390 works
  2. 2 Universidad de MálagaSpain 223 works
  3. 3 Universidad Rey Juan CarlosSpain 220 works
  4. 4 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 209 works
  5. 5 Universidad de SevillaSpain 195 works
  6. 6 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoMexico 162 works
  7. 7 Universidade de São PauloBrazil 159 works
  8. 8 University of AmsterdamNetherlands 156 works
  9. 9 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 155 works
  10. 10 Universitat de ValènciaSpain 153 works

Who are the leading researchers in Communication?

Counting only their work in Communication, Claes H. de Vreese, Rens Vliegenthart and Homero Gil de Zúñiga have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Claes H. de Vreese Netherlands · #6,404 worldwide overall 53.5 of 122 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Rens Vliegenthart Netherlands · #11,206 worldwide overall 35.8 of 77 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Homero Gil de Zúñiga Chile · #11,148 worldwide overall 34.6 of 83 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Seth C. Lewis United States · #11,112 worldwide overall 31.0 of 60 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Edson C. Tandoc Singapore · #19,680 worldwide overall 29.7 of 66 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Jörg Matthes Austria · #15,086 worldwide overall 29.5 of 72 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Robert E. Kraut United States · #7,344 worldwide overall 24.4 of 49 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Folker Hanusch Austria · #55,206 worldwide overall 25.4 of 59 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Rasmus Kleis Nielsen United Kingdom · #23,920 worldwide overall 24.7 of 55 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Dietram A. Scheufele United States · #10,242 worldwide overall 24.8 of 59 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Communication alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 402,953 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 Communication researchers

What are the most cited papers in Communication?

The most cited paper in Communication is "Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology" (Fred D. Davis, 1989), with 67,727 citations. Next come "User Acceptance of Computer Technology: A Comparison of Two Theoretical Models" (25,784) and "Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation" (21,129).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology Fred D. Davis · MIS Quarterly Sep 1989 67,727
2 User Acceptance of Computer Technology: A Comparison of Two Theoretical Models Fred D. Davis, Richard P. Bagozzi, Paul R. Warshaw · Management Science Aug 1989 25,784
3 Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation Hazel Rose Markus, Shinobu Kitayama · Psychological Review Apr 1991 21,129
4 Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media Andreas Kaplan, Michael Haenlein · Business Horizons Open access 14 Oct 2009 17,866
5 Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship danah boyd, Nicole B. Ellison · Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication Open access Oct 2007 16,252
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Communication research done?

The largest centres of Communication research in 2022-now are Moscow (Russia), Madrid (Spain), Beijing (China) and Jakarta (Indonesia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Villanueva de la Cañada and Kokand.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 MoscowRussia 1.4k works
  2. 2 MadridSpain 1.1k works
  3. 3 BeijingChina 702 works
  4. 4 JakartaIndonesia 606 works
  5. 5 LondonUnited Kingdom 535 works
  6. 6 São PauloBrazil 520 works
  7. 7 BandungIndonesia 476 works
  8. 8 Mexico CityMexico 453 works
  9. 9 New YorkUnited States 415 works
  10. 10 IstanbulTürkiye 412 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Villanueva de la CañadaES · 25.4 works19×
  2. KokandUZ · 30.9 works12×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Communication on the map

Communication research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Communication?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Amsterdam, Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Stanford 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 22.47%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Amster…Nanyang Technologica…Stanford UniversityUniversitat Pompeu F…
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 AmsterdamNetherlands 80.1#1 (#6)27.7%4.6×156 -17.6%
2Universitat Pompeu FabraSpain 77.0#8 (#1)19.7%8.9×98 -21.0%
3Stanford UniversityUnited States 71.1#7 (#3)22.5%0.9×74 +6.5%
4Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 69.5#19 (#2)24.7%1.5×68 -23.5%
5The University of Texas at AustinUnited States 68.6#4 (#4)19.2%2.4×115 -23.2%
6University of ViennaAustria 66.2#2 (#30)24.0%4.5×128 +37.3%
7University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 65.9#3 (#9)26.0%1.2×98 -24.3%
8University of ZurichSwitzerland 65.1#5 (#11)20.7%2.9×115 -3.3%
9University of MichiganUnited States 62.0#11 (#5)17.9%1.1×94 -16.0%
10Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 61.3#6 (#15)22.3%2.2×108 +5.5%

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 Communication, country by country

Is Communication research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 7% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021. The fastest-growing topics are Communication Studies and Media, Cultural Studies and Postmodernism and Public Relations and Crisis Communication.

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 Communication as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.27% in 2024.

still counting0.20%0.40%Communication0.26% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Communication 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%Communication10.2% 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. Communication Studies and Media+68%
  2. Cultural Studies and Postmodernism+62%
  3. Public Relations and Crisis Communication+29%
  4. Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism+27%
  5. International Student and Expatriate Challenges+21%
  6. Radio, Podcasts, and Digital Media+14%
  7. Media and Communication Studies-12%
  8. Advertising and Communication Studies-19%
  9. Wikis in Education and Collaboration-22%
  10. Journalism and Media Studies-25%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

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

What does Communication include?

Social Media and Politics53kSocial Media and Politics: 53k fractional worksKnowledge Management and Sharing: 35k fractional worksMedia Studies and Communication: 35k fractional worksPublic Relations and Crisis Communication: 20k fractional worksInternational Student and Expatriate Challenges: 19k fractional worksLanguage, Communication, and Linguistic Studies: 15k fractional worksCommunication and COVID-19 Impact: 12k fractional worksWikis in Education and Collaboration: 10k fractional worksAdvertising and Communication Studies: 9,838 fractional worksRadio, Podcasts, and Digital Media: 9,246 fractional worksSwearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism: 8,740 fractional worksJournalism and Media Studies: 7,182 fractional works

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

Share who leads Communication

Who leads Communication, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Communication, 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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