Library and Information Sciences Research Leaders

Which countries lead Library and Information Sciences research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, India and Nigeria rank highest in Library and Information Sciences. By volume, the United States and Nigeria publish the most (1.8k and 486 works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

1 United States #1 all time 0.84× citation excellence · 1.50× journals · 100% breadth 9.1% top 10% · 1.5k works
2 India #5 all time 0.64× citation excellence · 0.45× journals · 100% breadth 5.2% top 10% · 334 works
3 Nigeria #7 all time 0.87× citation excellence · 0.09× journals · 100% breadth 7.0% top 10% · 389 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 3 countries ranked in Library and Information Sciences. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Library and Information Sciences

By volume, 2022-now

1 United States 1.8k works
2 Nigeria 486 works
3 India 442 works
4 Canada 203 works
5 Ghana 163 works
6 Indonesia 151 works
7 United Kingdom 142 works
8 Australia 138 works
9 China 102 works
10 Pakistan 76 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 States1,775 · 48.3%Nigeria486 · 13.2%India442 · 12.0%Canada203 · 5.5%6 others listed771 · 21.0%

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

Which institutions lead Library and Information Sciences research?

African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (Ghana) ranks first in Library and Information Sciences on research quality in 2022-now, followed by .

By research quality, 2022-now

1 African Library and Information Associations and Institutions Ghana · Accra · #14 all time 0.6% top 10% · 100 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 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Library and Information Sciences.

Top 100 Library and Information Sciences institutions

By volume, 2022-now

1 African Library and Information Associations and InstitutionsGhana 129 works
2 Association of Research LibrariesUnited States 34 works
3 Charles Sturt UniversityAustralia 34 works
4 East Carolina UniversityUnited States 28 works
5 University of TorontoCanada 26 works
6 Delta State UniversityNigeria 25 works
7 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 25 works
8 G.S. Science, Arts And Commerce CollegeIndia 25 works
9 San Jose State UniversityUnited States 25 works
10 University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignUnited States 25 works

Who are the leading researchers in Library and Information Sciences?

Counting only their work in Library and Information Sciences, Paul T. Jaeger, Carol Collier Kuhlthau and Heidi E. Julien have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

1 Paul T. Jaeger United States · #50,106 worldwide overall 15.9 of 39 papers here in the top 10%
2 Carol Collier Kuhlthau United States · #103,849 worldwide overall 12.2 of 20 papers here in the top 10%
3 Heidi E. Julien United States · #385,644 worldwide overall 13.9 of 51 papers here in the top 10%
4 John Carlo Bertot United States · #141,915 worldwide overall 11.2 of 34 papers here in the top 10%
5 Annemareé Lloyd Australia · #200,214 worldwide overall 12.7 of 19 papers here in the top 10%
6 Christine Susan Bruce Australia · #603,850 worldwide overall 11.5 of 39 papers here in the top 10%
7 Melissa R. Gross United States · #419,951 worldwide overall 10.3 of 28 papers here in the top 10%
8 Margaret Kristin Merga Australia · #56,395 worldwide overall 8.1 of 11 papers here in the top 10%
9 Don Latham United States · #401,623 worldwide overall 9.4 of 28 papers here in the top 10%
10 Laura Saunders United States · #580,940 worldwide overall 9.9 of 28 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Library and Information Sciences alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 43,922 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 Library and Information Sciences researchers

What are the most cited papers in Library and Information Sciences?

The most cited paper in Library and Information Sciences is "Inside the search process: Information seeking from the user's perspective" (Carol Collier Kuhlthau, 1991), with 2,176 citations. Next come "Information and digital literacies: a review of concepts" (1,203) and "Everyday life information seeking: Approaching information seeking in the context of “way of life”" (1,033).

Most cited papers
#	Paper	Released	Citations
1	Inside the search process: Information seeking from the user's perspective Carol Collier Kuhlthau · Journal of the American Society for Information Science	Jun 1991	2,176
2	Information and digital literacies: a review of concepts David Bawden · Journal of Documentation Open access	Apr 2001	1,203
3	Everyday life information seeking: Approaching information seeking in the context of “way of life” Reijo Savolainen · Library & Information Science Research	Jun 1995	1,033
4	The Adoption of Technological, Administrative, and Ancillary Innovations: Impact of Organizational Factors Fariborz Damanpour · Journal of Management	Dec 1987	959
5	Evaluation thesaurus, 4th ed. Michael Scriven	1991	956

All 98 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Library and Information Sciences research done?

The largest centres of Library and Information Sciences research in 2022-now are Accra (Ghana), New York (United States), Chicago (United States) and Washington D.C. (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Accra, Bathurst and Greenville.

Largest cities, 2022-now

1 AccraGhana 146 works
2 New YorkUnited States 59 works
3 ChicagoUnited States 58 works
4 Washington D.C.United States 57 works
5 LondonUnited Kingdom 44 works
6 Port HarcourtNigeria 42 works
7 IbadanNigeria 40 works
8 TorontoCanada 36 works
9 BathurstAustralia 34 works
10 AtlantaUnited States 31 works

Where it is the local speciality

AccraGH · 145.8 works57×
BathurstAU · 34.2 works54×
GreenvilleUS · 28.1 works41×

← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Library and Information Sciences than the world average.

See Library and Information Sciences on the map

Where is the best place to study Library and Information Sciences?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Pennsylvania State University and Indiana 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.

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.

#	University	Score	Rank in field (all time)	Top 10%	Specialisation	Works	Growth
1	University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignUnited States	75.5	- (#1)	11.3%	6.8×	25	+8.4%
2	Pennsylvania State UniversityUnited States	45.6	- (#3)	5.7%	4.3×	20	-38.6%
3	Indiana UniversityUnited States	39.4	- (#4)	16.9%	3.9×	16	-39.4%
4	Charles Sturt UniversityAustralia	38.1	- (#13)	36.1%	61.4×	34	+65.0%
5	City University of New YorkUnited States	36.8	- (#6)	13.8%	9.6×	22	-50.6%
6	Eötvös Loránd UniversityHungary	35.6	-	59.4%	8.7×	11	+856.2%
7	Rutgers, The State University of New JerseyUnited States	29.6	- (#5)	12.8%	3.0×	10	-53.1%
8	Florida State UniversityUnited States	28.8	- (#7)	24.1%	7.5×	11	-48.3%
9	University of TorontoCanada	27.5	-	11.1%	3.1×	26	+95.1%
10	San Jose State UniversityUnited States	27.2	- (#11)	7.6%	55.2×	25	-0.9%
11	University at Buffalo, State University of New YorkUnited States	26.4	-	9.0%	13.0×	22	+82.1%
12	University of South AfricaSouth Africa	26.1	-	17.4%	11.6×	21	+7.3%
13	East Carolina UniversityUnited States	25.9	-	7.1%	47.2×	28	+33.9%
14	University of Illinois ChicagoUnited States	24.6	-	15.7%	8.2×	18	+30.2%
15	Delta State UniversityNigeria	24.5	-	0.8%	49.0×	26	+212.5%
16	University of Maryland, College ParkUnited States	24.3	- (#8)	15.7%	4.3×	10	-46.4%
17	Rivers State UniversityNigeria	23.9	-	7.9%	33.9×	24	+70.6%
18	G.S. Science, Arts And Commerce CollegeIndia	23.2	-	2.0%	35.8×	25	+173.3%
19	University of North TexasUnited States	22.9	-	8.0%	19.6×	21	+3.1%
20	University of South CarolinaUnited States	22.6	-	10.1%	15.2×	22	-3.6%
21	Syracuse UniversityUnited States	22.4	-	11.3%	25.3×	20	-2.2%
22	University of Port HarcourtNigeria	22.2	-	7.7%	24.9×	18	+103.7%
23	University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States	22.1	- (#10)	9.2%	3.4×	25	-93.8%
24	Victoria University of WellingtonNew Zealand	22.1	-	19.8%	12.3×	11	+4.5%
25	The Federal Polytechnic, Ado-EkitiNigeria	21.8	-	7.3%	38.3×	19	+165.8%
26	University of the PunjabPakistan	21.3	-	31.0%	8.7×	10	-38.0%
27	Federal College of Education, KanoNigeria	20.8	-	5.3%	43.5×	18	+68.3%
28	Western UniversityCanada	20.8	-	16.6%	6.8×	16	-50.1%
29	Australian National UniversityAustralia	20.8	-	29.0%	4.5×	10	+111.6%
30	Kwara State UniversityNigeria	20.2	-	21.8%	41.4×	10	+40.3%
31	University of Dar es SalaamTanzania	20.1	-	17.1%	22.9×	12	+167.9%
32	Simmons UniversityUnited States	19.5	-	6.5%	215.9×	15	+9.7%
33	Lead City UniversityNigeria	19.5	-	10.9%	61.2×	13	+220.2%
34	McGill UniversityCanada	19.4	-	19.4%	3.5×	15	-10.8%
35	Universiti Teknologi MARAMalaysia	19.3	-	10.0%	4.9×	16	+16.6%
36	University of CopenhagenDenmark	19.2	-	33.5%	3.1×	12	-21.6%
37	University of GhanaGhana	19.1	-	23.4%	7.7×	8	+446.2%
38	Tai Solarin University of EducationNigeria	19.0	-	0.7%	210.1×	15	+357.5%
39	Northern Illinois UniversityUnited States	18.9	-	28.5%	27.8×	9	+107.5%
40	University of CalabarNigeria	18.8	-	4.2%	27.4×	14	+76.2%
41	University of AlbertaCanada	17.0	-	6.3%	4.3×	16	-53.2%
42	University College LondonUnited Kingdom	14.3	-	15.5%	1.6×	11	-13.0%
43	University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom	12.9	-	7.9%	1.8×	9	+281.5%
44	Purdue University West LafayetteUnited States	8.6	- (#12)	14.2%	2.2×	9	-59.9%

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 Library and Information Sciences, country by country

Is Library and Information Sciences research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 18% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2019.

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 Library and Information Sciences as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.018% in 2024.

Fractional works of Library and Information Sciences 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.

What does Library and Information Sciences include?

Share who leads Library and Information Sciences

The leading institutions' badges1Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

African Library and Information Associations and Institutions Image

Which countries lead Library and Information Sciences research?

By research quality, 2022-now

By volume, 2022-now

How concentrated that is

Which institutions lead Library and Information Sciences research?

By research quality, 2022-now

By volume, 2022-now

Who are the leading researchers in Library and Information Sciences?

What are the most cited papers in Library and Information Sciences?

Where is Library and Information Sciences research done?

Largest cities, 2022-now

Where it is the local speciality

Where is the best place to study Library and Information Sciences?

Is Library and Information Sciences research growing?

Its share of all research

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Which topics inside it are moving

What does Library and Information Sciences include?

Share who leads Library and Information Sciences

Related research

Discussion