General Materials Science research
General Materials Science is a subfield of Materials Science. Science Explorer counts 67k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.
In short: research, discovery and design of physical materials (especially solids).
- Research works
- 67k fractional, since 1950
- In the world top 10%
- 6.8k per year above
- Top-10% rate
- 10.1% share of its works in the world top 10%
- Topics
- 3
- Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
- +0% the tick is no change
- Largest producer
Russia
37% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
What is General Materials Science research about, and what is growing?
By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics, Polymer Composite Materials, Alloys, Phase Diagrams, Engineering, Materials Science. Gaining share since 2011-15: Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics, Polymer Composite Materials. Losing share: Alloys, Phase Diagrams, Engineering, Materials Science.
- Materials Science
- Phase Diagrams
- Polymer Composite Materials
- Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics
- Alloys
- Engineering
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 6 words, with their numbers
- Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics9,842▲ 1.20×1 topic
- Polymer Composite Materials9,842▲ 1.20×1 topic
- Alloys1,386▼ 0.51×1 topic
- Phase Diagrams1,386▼ 0.51×1 topic
- Engineering832▼ 0.72×1 topic
- Materials Science832▼ 0.72×1 topic
Which countries lead General Materials Science research?
On research quality in 2022-now, China, the United States and Germany rank highest in General Materials Science. By volume, Russia and China publish the most (2.8k and 1.5k works in 2022-now).
By research quality, 2022-now
- 1
China #2 all time
1.60× citation excellence · 1.15× journals · 100% breadth
20.6% top 10% · 1.3k works
- 2
United States #1 all time
0.53× citation excellence · 1.57× journals · 100% breadth
7.0% top 10% · 862 works
- 3
Germany #3 all time
1.22× citation excellence · 1.41× journals · 100% breadth
10.3% top 10% · 222 works
- 4
Poland #9 all time
1.67× citation excellence · 0.56× journals · 100% breadth
16.6% top 10% · 230 works
- 5
India #11 all time
1.13× citation excellence · 0.48× journals · 100% breadth
14.5% top 10% · 411 works
- 6
Japan #5 all time
0.61× citation excellence · 0.99× journals · 100% breadth
6.9% top 10% · 252 works
- 7
Russia #10 all time
0.75× citation excellence · 0.18× journals · 100% breadth
5.4% top 10% · 2.7k works
- 8
Ukraine #15 all time
1.00× citation excellence · 0.24× journals · 100% breadth
7.8% top 10% · 698 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 8 countries ranked in General Materials Science. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.
All countries ranked in General Materials ScienceBy volume, 2022-now
- 1
Russia
2.8k works
- 2
China
1.5k works
- 3
United States
1k works
- 4
Ukraine
735 works
- 5
India
466 works
- 6
Japan
289 works
- 7
Germany
261 works
- 8
Poland
241 works
- 9
Uzbekistan
209 works
- 10
France
185 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.
Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.
Which institutions lead General Materials Science research?
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France) ranks first in General Materials Science on research quality in 2022-now, followed by Russian Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
By research quality, 2022-now
- 1
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France · Paris · #3 all time
4.8% top 10% · 74 works
- 2
Russian Academy of Sciences Russia · Moscow · #10 all time
7.9% top 10% · 453 works
- 3
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Ukraine · Kyiv · #25 all time
10.3% top 10% · 131 works
- 4
Moscow Aviation Institute Russia · Moscow · #21 all time
13.9% top 10% · 75 works
- 5
Bauman Moscow State Technical University Russia · Moscow · #22 all time
6.9% top 10% · 82 works
- 6
Volgograd State Technical University Russia · Volgograd · #50 all time
0.8% top 10% · 79 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 6 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in General Materials Science.
Top 100 General Materials Science institutionsBy volume, 2022-now
- 1
Russian Academy of SciencesRussia
476 works
- 2
National Academy of Sciences of UkraineUkraine
137 works
- 3
Bauman Moscow State Technical UniversityRussia
87 works
- 4
Volgograd State Technical UniversityRussia
84 works
- 5
Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance
82 works
- 6
Moscow Aviation InstituteRussia
78 works
- 7
Weatherford CollegeUnited States
65 works
- 8
Chinese Academy of SciencesChina
63 works
- 9
Kurchatov InstituteRussia
55 works
- 10
National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”Ukraine
54 works
Who are the leading researchers in General Materials Science?
Counting only their work in General Materials Science, K. Ishida, In‐Ho Jung and Ryosuke Kainuma have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.
- 1
K. Ishida
Japan · #97,253 worldwide overall
24.8 of 37 papers here in the top 10%
- 2
In‐Ho Jung
Canada · #589,160 worldwide overall
22.0 of 34 papers here in the top 10%
- 3
Ryosuke Kainuma
Japan · #224,322 worldwide overall
19.5 of 34 papers here in the top 10%
- 4
Y. A. Chang
United States · #402,622 worldwide overall
18.5 of 46 papers here in the top 10%
- 5
Zi‐Kui Liu
United States · #67,541 worldwide overall
16.5 of 30 papers here in the top 10%
- 6
Yong Du
China · #3,377,446 worldwide overall
35.2 of 94 papers here in the top 10%
- 7
Youn‐Bae Kang
South Korea · #476,595 worldwide overall
12.3 of 18 papers here in the top 10%
- 8
Ikuo Ohnuma
Japan · #391,611 worldwide overall
19.2 of 34 papers here in the top 10%
- 9
Zhenmin Du
China · #1,729,050 worldwide overall
15.0 of 35 papers here in the top 10%
- 10
Cuiping Guo
China · #1,926,427 worldwide overall
13.6 of 29 papers here in the top 10%
Ranked on their work in General Materials Science alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 283,216 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 Materials Science researchersWhere is General Materials Science research done?
The largest centres of General Materials Science research in 2022-now are Moscow (Russia), Kyiv (Ukraine), Saint Petersburg (Russia) and Beijing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Komsomol'skiy, Tomsk and Volgograd.
Largest cities, 2022-now
Where it is the local speciality
- Komsomol'skiyRU · 37.0 works61×
- TomskRU · 25.3 works60×
- VolgogradRU · 93.1 works40×
Location quotient: how much more of its research is in General Materials Science than the world average.
General Materials Science research by country
The best places for General Materials Science research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.
Where is the best place to study General Materials Science?
Among universities, judged by research, RWTH Aachen University, University of Science and Technology Beijing and Central South 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.
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.
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 Materials Science, country by countryIs General Materials Science research growing?
Output in 2022-2025 was 0% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Metallurgical and Alloy Processes and Engineering and Material Science Research.
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 Materials Science as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.046% in 2024.
Fractional works of General Materials Science 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.
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.
- Metallurgical and Alloy Processes+22%
- Engineering and Material Science Research+14%
- Material Properties and Applications-3%
Growth in output from 2018-21 to 2022-25. Every topic is a page of its own.
What does General Materials Science include?
Share who leads General Materials Science
The leading institutions' badges6Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot
Discussion
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