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Subfield · Arts and Humanities

General Arts and Humanities research

General Arts and Humanities is a subfield of Arts and Humanities. Science Explorer counts 20k 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: study of the products of human culture such as art, historical artifacts etc.

Research works
20k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
4
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+11%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Brazil
31% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
General Arts and Humanities

What is General Arts and Humanities research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Literature, Cultural Studies, Innovation, Art, Education, Culture. Gaining share since 2011-15: Cognition, Communication, Media. Losing share: Religion, Society, Music.

▲ 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 15 words, with their numbers
  1. Literature4,670◆ 0.90×3 topics
  2. Cultural Studies2,886◆ 0.97×1 topic
  3. Innovation2,886◆ 0.97×1 topic
  4. Art2,630◆ 1.04×3 topics
  5. Education2,630◆ 1.04×3 topics
  6. Culture2,110◆ 1.06×2 topics
  7. History2,110◆ 1.06×2 topics
  8. Music1,784▼ 0.81×2 topics
  9. Media1,366▲ 1.56×2 topics
  10. Religion1,264▼ 0.76×1 topic
  11. Society1,264▼ 0.76×1 topic
  12. Cognition846▲ 2.5×1 topic
  13. Communication846▲ 2.5×1 topic
  14. Ethnography520◆ 0.96×1 topic
  15. Sociology520◆ 0.96×1 topic

Which countries lead General Arts and Humanities research?

On research quality in 2022-now, Italy, the United States and Spain rank highest in General Arts and Humanities. By volume, Brazil and Italy publish the most (1.4k and 1.3k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Italy #3 all time 0.98× citation excellence · 0.67× journals · 100% breadth 9.8% top 10% · 1.2k works
  2. 2 United States #1 all time 1.04× citation excellence · 1.53× journals · 100% breadth 11.6% top 10% · 269 works
  3. 3 Spain #2 all time 0.89× citation excellence · 0.99× journals · 100% breadth 10.4% top 10% · 528 works
  4. 4 France #4 all time 0.94× citation excellence · 1.25× journals · 100% breadth 4.2% top 10% · 270 works
  5. 5 Brazil #6 all time 0.83× citation excellence · 0.33× journals · 100% breadth 9.4% top 10% · 1k 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 5 countries ranked in General Arts and Humanities. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in General Arts and Humanities

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Brazil 1.4k works
  2. 2 Italy 1.3k works
  3. 3 Spain 605 works
  4. 4 United States 333 works
  5. 5 France 283 works
  6. 6 Mexico 173 works
  7. 7 Argentina 165 works
  8. 8 United Kingdom 99 works
  9. 9 Germany 99 works
  10. 10 Portugal 89 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.

Brazil: 31.2%Italy: 28.2%Spain: 13.3%United States: 7.3%6 others listed: 20.0%31%largest
Brazil1,423 · 31.2%Italy1,287 · 28.2%Spain605 · 13.3%United States333 · 7.3%6 others listed909 · 20.0%

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

Which institutions lead General Arts and Humanities research?

Ca' Foscari University of Venice (Italy) ranks first in General Arts and Humanities on research quality in 2022-now, followed by University of Bologna and University of Florence.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Ca' Foscari University of Venice Italy · Venice · #5 all time 9.2% top 10% · 74 works
  2. 2 University of Bologna Italy · Bologna · #10 all time 9.6% top 10% · 66 works
  3. 3 University of Florence Italy · Florence · #9 all time 8.8% top 10% · 68 works
  4. 4 University of Milan Italy · Milan · #16 all time 7.4% top 10% · 78 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 4 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in General Arts and Humanities.

Top 100 General Arts and Humanities institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of MilanItaly 85 works
  2. 2 University of BolognaItaly 77 works
  3. 3 Ca' Foscari University of VeniceItaly 77 works
  4. 4 University of FlorenceItaly 75 works
  5. 5 Universidade de São PauloBrazil 66 works
  6. 6 Sapienza University of RomeItaly 63 works
  7. 7 Universidad Complutense de MadridSpain 56 works
  8. 8 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 52 works
  9. 9 University of TurinItaly 50 works
  10. 10 Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)Brazil 41 works

Who are the leading researchers in General Arts and Humanities?

Counting only their work in General Arts and Humanities, Mircéa Éliade, Jean-Pierre Vernant and Peter Bondanella have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Mircéa Éliade United States · #489,913 worldwide overall 6.3 of 10 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Jean-Pierre Vernant France · #837,887 worldwide overall 5.5 of 8 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Peter Bondanella United States · #1,084,862 worldwide overall 4.7 of 10 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Italo Calvino Brazil · #2,943,742 worldwide overall 6.9 of 16 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Antonio Franceschetti United States · #2,311,645 worldwide overall 5.6 of 23 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Terezinha Petrúcia da Nóbrega Brazil · #3,814,939 worldwide overall 4.4 of 8 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Olga Ragusa United States · #3,981,945 worldwide overall 7.0 of 38 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Umberto Eco Italy · #1,272,938 worldwide overall 7.2 of 26 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Lucia Ré United States · #3,077,776 worldwide overall 4.3 of 12 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Carlos García Gual United States · #6,352,998 worldwide overall 8.9 of 57 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in General Arts and Humanities alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 69,208 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 General Arts and Humanities researchers

What are the most cited papers in General Arts and Humanities?

The most cited paper in General Arts and Humanities is "The Theory, Practice, and Evaluation of the Phenomenological Method as a Qualitative Research Procedure" (Amedeo Giorgi, 1997), with 2,263 citations. Next come "On the Social Development of the Intellect" (785) and "A study in language and cognition." (781).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The Theory, Practice, and Evaluation of the Phenomenological Method as a Qualitative Research Procedure Amedeo Giorgi · Journal of Phenomenological Psychology Open access 1997 2,263
2 On the Social Development of the Intellect Willem Doise Book chapter 1985 785
3 A study in language and cognition. Roger Brown, Eric H. Lenneberg · Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology Jul 1954 781
4 Embodied Action, Enacted Bodies: the Example of Hypoglycaemia Annemarie Mol, John R. Law · Body & Society Open access Jun 2004 697
5 Egocentrism and antisocial behavior: The assessment and training of social perspective-taking skills. Michael J. Chandler · Developmental Psychology Nov 1973 504
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is General Arts and Humanities research done?

The largest centres of General Arts and Humanities research in 2022-now are São Paulo (Brazil), Rome (Italy), Madrid (Spain) and Milan (Italy). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Venice, Siena and Florence.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 São PauloBrazil 245 works
  2. 2 RomeItaly 188 works
  3. 3 MadridSpain 174 works
  4. 4 MilanItaly 153 works
  5. 5 Rio de JaneiroBrazil 137 works
  6. 6 FlorenceItaly 94 works
  7. 7 VeniceItaly 90 works
  8. 8 ParisFrance 89 works
  9. 9 BolognaItaly 82 works
  10. 10 Buenos AiresArgentina 80 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. VeniceIT · 90.3 works54×
  2. SienaIT · 31.6 works27×
  3. FlorenceIT · 94.0 works22×
  4. NanterreFR · 31.3 works22×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in General Arts and Humanities than the world average.

See General Arts and Humanities on the map

General Arts and Humanities research by country

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

Where is the best place to study General Arts and Humanities?

Among universities, judged by research, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and University of Turin 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 11%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Universidad Complute…University of BolognaCa' Foscari Universi…University of Turin
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
1Ca' Foscari University of VeniceItaly 80.5#1 (#5)9.2%70.6×77 +6.8%
2Universidad Complutense de MadridSpain 72.5- (#3)12.8%13.8×56 +5.3%
3University of TurinItaly 59.2- (#4)9.0%20.2×50 -39.2%
4University of BolognaItaly 53.8#2 (#10)9.4%20.3×77 -32.7%
5Sapienza University of RomeItaly 53.1- (#6)11.1%11.8×63 -15.9%
6University of FlorenceItaly 50.3#3 (#9)8.8%27.6×76 +9.0%
7Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoMexico 42.4- (#8)11.6%8.2×38 -5.2%
8Universidade de São PauloBrazil 40.3- (#11)8.4%7.1×66 +44.1%
9Universidad de GranadaSpain 34.1- (#13)9.6%11.1×29 +28.6%
10University of AlicanteSpain 33.0-20.1%7.8×10 +30.5%

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 General Arts and Humanities, country by country

Is General Arts and Humanities research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 11% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Corporeality, Perception, and Education, Cultural and Mythological Studies and Schopenhauer and Stefan Zweig.

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 General Arts and Humanities as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.019% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%General Arts and Humanities0.028% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of General Arts and Humanities 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%General Arts and Humanities9.5% 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. Corporeality, Perception, and Education+210%
  2. Cultural and Mythological Studies+14%
  3. Schopenhauer and Stefan Zweig+5%
  4. Italian Literature and Culture-10%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

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

What does General Arts and Humanities include?

Italian Literature and C…11kItalian Literature and Culture: 11k fractional worksCultural and Mythologica…5,641Cultural and Mythological Studies: 5,641 fractional worksCorporeality, Perception, and Education: 1,998 fractional worksSchopenhauer and Stefan Zweig: 1,837 fractional works

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

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Who leads General Arts and Humanities, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead General Arts and Humanities, 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' badges4Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

Discussion

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