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Subfield · Business, Management and Accounting

Industrial relations research

Industrial relations is a subfield of Business, Management and Accounting. Science Explorer counts 4.2k research works in it since 1952. 11.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: study of the relationship between employers, employees and others.

Research works
4.2k
fractional, since 1952
In the world top 10%
458
per year above
Top-10% rate
11.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
1
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-9%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Italy
59% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Industrial relations

Which countries lead Industrial relations research?

On research quality in 2022-now, Italy rank highest in Industrial relations. By volume, Italy and France publish the most (387 and 113 works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Italy #1 all time 0.94× excellence · 0.67× journals · 100% breadth 9.4% top 10% · 327 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 1 countries ranked in Industrial relations. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Industrial relations

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Italy 387 works
  2. 2 France 113 works
  3. 3 Spain 63 works
  4. 4 United States 30 works
  5. 5 Brazil 16 works
  6. 6 Mexico 16 works
  7. 7 ?? 12 works
  8. 8 United Kingdom 11 works
  9. 9 Germany 7 works
  10. 10 Belgium 7 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.

Italy: 58.5%France: 17.0%Spain: 9.5%United States: 4.5%6 others listed: 10.4%59%largest
Italy387 · 58.5%France113 · 17.0%Spain63 · 9.5%United States30 · 4.5%6 others listed69 · 10.4%

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

Which institutions lead Industrial relations research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Florence publishes the most Industrial relations research, followed by University of Milan and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of FlorenceItaly 36 works
  2. 2 University of MilanItaly 33 works
  3. 3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 30 works
  4. 4 University of BolognaItaly 18 works
  5. 5 University of Bari Aldo MoroItaly 15 works
  6. 6 Sapienza University of RomeItaly 15 works
  7. 7 University of MacerataItaly 12 works
  8. 8 Université Lille Nord de FranceFrance 10 works
  9. 9 University of PisaItaly 10 works
  10. 10 University of SienaItaly 10 works

Who are the leading researchers in Industrial relations?

Counting only their work in Industrial relations, Sabino Cassese, Riccardo Del Punta and Isabelle de Lassus have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Sabino Cassese South Korea · #2,455,963 worldwide overall 12.9 of 43 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Riccardo Del Punta Italy · #1,385,678 worldwide overall 12.5 of 26 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Isabelle de Lassus Canada · #6,929,359 worldwide overall 7.9 of 18 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Gianfranco Pasquino Italy · #5,467,524 worldwide overall 13.8 of 57 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Sylviane Ceccaldi Canada · #7,236,615 worldwide overall 8.5 of 30 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Chiara Saraceno Italy · #1,168,889 worldwide overall 7.4 of 12 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Nicola Lupo Italy · #2,177,893 worldwide overall 11.2 of 64 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Tiziano Treu Italy · #3,996,853 worldwide overall 9.1 of 38 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Franco Carinci Italy · #2,429,308 worldwide overall 6.9 of 16 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Reinhard Bendix United States · #16,362 worldwide overall 4.0 of 4 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Industrial relations alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 27,452 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 Industrial relations researchers

What are the most cited papers in Industrial relations?

The most cited paper in Industrial relations is "Employment Technology and Development." (Frances Stewart, Avery Sen, 1976), with 428 citations. Next come "Racism and Migration in Western Europe." (266) and "Transformations du travail et devenir du droit du travail: une prospective européenne" (188).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Employment Technology and Development. Frances Stewart, Avery Sen · The Economic Journal Open access Mar 1976 428
2 Racism and Migration in Western Europe. Marco Martiniello, John Wrench, John Solomos · International Migration Review 1995 266
3 Transformations du travail et devenir du droit du travail: une prospective européenne Alain Supiot · Revue internationale du Travail Mar 1999 188
4 Problems and Solutions in the Quality of Working Life William A. Westley · Human Relations Feb 1979 181
5 Spain: the very model of the modern elite settlement Richard Günther · Cambridge University Press eBooks Book chapter 29 Nov 1991 123
All 101 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Industrial relations research done?

The largest centres of Industrial relations research in 2022-now are Milan (Italy), Rome (Italy), Florence (Italy) and Paris (France). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Florence, Bologna and Milan.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 MilanItaly 53 works
  2. 2 RomeItaly 52 works
  3. 3 FlorenceItaly 46 works
  4. 4 ParisFrance 27 works
  5. 5 MadridSpain 23 works
  6. 6 BolognaItaly 20 works
  7. 7 NaplesItaly 19 works
  8. 8 BariItaly 16 works
  9. 9 PisaItaly 14 works
  10. 10 MacerataItaly 12 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. FlorenceIT · 45.9 works75×
  2. BolognaIT · 20.1 works26×
  3. MilanIT · 52.8 works24×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Industrial relations on the map

Industrial relations research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Industrial relations?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Bologna, University of Milan and University of Florence score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%5%10%15%mean 8.55%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of TrentoUniversity of BolognaUniversity of FlorenceUniversity of Milan
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%
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 BolognaItaly 35.6-11.8%32.8×18 +33.9%
2University of MilanItaly 34.8- (#2)9.4%76.8×33 -2.1%
3University of FlorenceItaly 34.2-10.9%90.8×36 +284.8%
4University of TrentoItaly 25.0-13.2%49.6×9 +66.3%
5University of Bari Aldo MoroItaly 24.9-7.9%72.3×16 +22.9%
6Sapienza University of RomeItaly 19.7-10.0%19.9×15 -37.7%
7University of TurinItaly 19.0-6.3%25.2×9 +11.2%
8University of MacerataItaly 17.1-8.4%435.5×12 +154.5%
9University of PisaItaly 14.7-0.3%32.7×10 +55.8%
10University of Naples Federico IIItaly 13.5-7.3%18.2×9 -38.0%

Universities only. The score blends standing (50%), 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 Industrial relations, country by country

Is Industrial relations research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 9% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2019.

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 Industrial relations as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0038% in 2024.

still counting0.0020%0.0040%0.0060%Industrial relations0.0030% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Industrial relations 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%Industrial relations9.8% 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.

What does Industrial relations include?

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