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Subfield · Health Professions

Occupational Therapy research

Occupational Therapy is a subfield of Health Professions. Science Explorer counts 127k 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: therapy to increase skills related to work or independent living.

Research works
127k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
13k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
8
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+34%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Indonesia
42% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Occupational Therapy

This ranks research output and citation impact. It says nothing about the quality of diagnosis, treatment or care.

What is Occupational Therapy research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Ergonomics, Workplace Safety, Quality of Life, Health Management, Productivity Improvement, Risk Assessment. Gaining share since 2011-15: Health Management, Productivity Improvement, Ergonomics, Workplace Safety. Losing share: Antineoplastic Drugs, Health Care Workers, Occupational Exposure, Emergency Responders.

▲ 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 21 words, with their numbers
  1. Ergonomics19k▲ 2.2×2 topics
  2. Workplace Safety19k▲ 2.2×2 topics
  3. Quality of Life19k▼ 0.73×4 topics
  4. Health Management15k▲ 5.0×1 topic
  5. Productivity Improvement15k▲ 5.0×1 topic
  6. Risk Assessment9,587▼ 0.76×2 topics
  7. Occupational Exposure6,152▼ 0.62×2 topics
  8. Assistive Technology5,028▼ 0.70×1 topic
  9. Augmentative and Alternative Communication5,028▼ 0.70×1 topic
  10. Pressure Ulcers4,980▼ 0.72×1 topic
  11. Prevention4,980▼ 0.72×1 topic
  12. Emergency Responders4,722▼ 0.65×1 topic
  13. Firefighters4,722▼ 0.65×1 topic
  14. Occupational Science4,712▼ 0.70×1 topic
  15. Therapy Practice4,712▼ 0.70×1 topic
  16. Occupational Health4,607▼ 0.81×1 topic
  17. Teleworking4,607▼ 0.81×1 topic
  18. Mental Health4,442▼ 0.84×1 topic
  19. Occupational Stress4,442▼ 0.84×1 topic
  20. Antineoplastic Drugs1,430▼ 0.53×1 topic
  21. Health Care Workers1,430▼ 0.53×1 topic

Which countries lead Occupational Therapy research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, the United Kingdom and China rank highest in Occupational Therapy. By volume, Indonesia and the United States publish the most (13k and 5.4k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 0.90× citation excellence · 1.54× journals · 100% breadth 9.6% top 10% · 4.6k works
  2. 2 United Kingdom #2 all time 1.18× citation excellence · 1.43× journals · 100% breadth 13.5% top 10% · 1.1k works
  3. 3 China #5 all time 1.51× citation excellence · 1.05× journals · 100% breadth 22.8% top 10% · 1.1k works
  4. 4 Australia #3 all time 1.53× citation excellence · 1.19× journals · 100% breadth 16.0% top 10% · 818 works
  5. 5 Spain #6 all time 1.39× citation excellence · 0.99× journals · 100% breadth 12.3% top 10% · 799 works
  6. 6 Canada #4 all time 1.16× citation excellence · 1.20× journals · 100% breadth 11.3% top 10% · 738 works
  7. 7 Germany #8 all time 1.21× citation excellence · 1.39× journals · 100% breadth 12.9% top 10% · 362 works
  8. 8 Netherlands #9 all time 1.22× citation excellence · 1.45× journals · 100% breadth 17.2% top 10% · 270 works
  9. 9 Sweden #7 all time 1.23× citation excellence · 1.38× journals · 100% breadth 11.5% top 10% · 267 works
  10. 10 France #12 all time 0.95× citation excellence · 1.25× journals · 100% breadth 8.0% top 10% · 408 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 26 countries ranked in Occupational Therapy. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Occupational Therapy

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Indonesia 13k works
  2. 2 United States 5.4k works
  3. 3 Brazil 4.5k works
  4. 4 China 1.4k works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 1.3k works
  6. 6 India 1k works
  7. 7 Australia 952 works
  8. 8 Spain 905 works
  9. 9 Canada 864 works
  10. 10 Ecuador 833 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.

Indonesia: 42.2%United States: 18.3%Brazil: 15.1%China: 4.6%6 others listed: 19.9%42%largest
Indonesia13k · 42.2%United States5,437 · 18.3%Brazil4,486 · 15.1%China1,369 · 4.6%6 others listed5,913 · 19.9%

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

Which institutions lead Occupational Therapy research?

Harvard University (United States) ranks first in Occupational Therapy on research quality in 2022-now, followed by University of Toronto and Universitas Muhammadiyah Jakarta.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harvard University United States · Cambridge · #1 all time 18.5% top 10% · 61 works
  2. 2 University of Toronto Canada · Toronto · #2 all time 12.5% top 10% · 83 works
  3. 3 Universitas Muhammadiyah Jakarta Indonesia · Jakarta 13.9% top 10% · 60 works
  4. 4 Universitas Balikpapan Indonesia · Balikpapan · #53 all time 8.6% top 10% · 98 works
  5. 5 Universitas Informatika dan Bisnis Indonesia Indonesia · Bandung 12.9% top 10% · 83 works
  6. 6 Mulawarman University Indonesia · Samarinda · #40 all time 14.6% top 10% · 70 works
  7. 7 Universitas Patria Artha Indonesia · Makassar · #42 all time 8.4% top 10% · 214 works
  8. 8 Universitas Muhammadiyah Gresik Indonesia · Gresik · #50 all time 13.2% top 10% · 137 works
  9. 9 Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara Indonesia · Medan · #67 all time 9.1% top 10% · 128 works
  10. 10 Mercu Buana University Indonesia · Jakarta · #47 all time 12.3% top 10% · 128 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 69 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Occupational Therapy.

Top 100 Occupational Therapy institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of IndonesiaIndonesia 266 works
  2. 2 Universitas Patria ArthaIndonesia 222 works
  3. 3 Airlangga UniversityIndonesia 205 works
  4. 4 Universidade de São PauloBrazil 169 works
  5. 5 University of Pembangunan Nasional Veteran Jawa TimurIndonesia 161 works
  6. 6 Tarumanagara UniversityIndonesia 156 works
  7. 7 Universitas Muhammadiyah GresikIndonesia 155 works
  8. 8 Universitas Muslim IndonesiaIndonesia 151 works
  9. 9 Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 SurabayaIndonesia 149 works
  10. 10 Sebelas Maret UniversityIndonesia 144 works

Who are the leading researchers in Occupational Therapy?

Counting only their work in Occupational Therapy, David G. Armstrong, Janice Light and Christopher Gerard Maher have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 David G. Armstrong United States · #58,653 worldwide overall 27.4 of 65 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Janice Light United States · #98,558 worldwide overall 27.5 of 66 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Christopher Gerard Maher Australia · #58,169 worldwide overall 19.4 of 43 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Amit Gefen Israel · #844,923 worldwide overall 28.6 of 74 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Mary Law Canada · #117,076 worldwide overall 21.8 of 56 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Dimitri Beeckman Belgium · #357,045 worldwide overall 23.3 of 71 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Zena Moore Ireland · #382,828 worldwide overall 25.4 of 57 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 David J. Prezant United States · #415,425 worldwide overall 17.4 of 61 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Denise L. Smith United States · #852,190 worldwide overall 21.5 of 50 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Bradley Charles Nindl United States · #793,706 worldwide overall 19.3 of 60 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Occupational Therapy alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 408,739 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 Occupational Therapy researchers

What are the most cited papers in Occupational Therapy?

The most cited paper in Occupational Therapy is "Older Adults' Reasons for Using Technology while Aging in Place" (Sebastiaan Theodorus Michaël Peek, Katrien Ger Luijkx, M. D. Rijnaard et al., 2015), with 19,753 citations. Next come "Guidelines for the Process of Cross-Cultural Adaptation of Self-Report Measures" (14,626) and "Development of a new resilience scale: The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC)" (11,835).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Older Adults' Reasons for Using Technology while Aging in Place Sebastiaan Theodorus Michaël Peek, Katrien Ger Luijkx, M. D. Rijnaard et al. · Gerontology Open access 4 Jun 2015 19,753
2 Guidelines for the Process of Cross-Cultural Adaptation of Self-Report Measures Dorcas Beaton, Claire Bombardier, Françis Guillemin et al. · Spine Dec 2000 14,626
3 Development of a new resilience scale: The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) Kathryn M. Connor, Jonathan R. T. Davidson · Depression and Anxiety Sep 2003 11,835
4 Factors Affecting Wound Healing Shuzhen Guo, Luisa Ann DiPietro · Journal of Dental Research Open access 5 Feb 2010 5,767
5 Validation of the theoretical domains framework for use in behaviour change and implementation research James E. Cane, Denise A O’Connor, Susan G. Michie · Implementation Science Open access 24 Apr 2012 5,203
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Occupational Therapy research done?

The largest centres of Occupational Therapy research in 2022-now are Jakarta (Indonesia), Surabaya (Indonesia), Makassar (Indonesia) and Bandung (Indonesia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Natick, Balikpapan and Gresik.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 JakartaIndonesia 1.7k works
  2. 2 SurabayaIndonesia 1k works
  3. 3 MakassarIndonesia 725 works
  4. 4 BandungIndonesia 719 works
  5. 5 São PauloBrazil 684 works
  6. 6 MedanIndonesia 650 works
  7. 7 SemarangIndonesia 622 works
  8. 8 MalangIndonesia 421 works
  9. 9 YogyakartaIndonesia 420 works
  10. 10 DepokIndonesia 388 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. NatickUS · 26.4 works31×
  2. BalikpapanID · 180.9 works25×
  3. GresikID · 164.3 works19×
  4. Lubuk PakamID · 66.6 works17×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Occupational Therapy on the map

Occupational Therapy research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Occupational Therapy?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, University of Toronto and The University of Queensland 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 13.84%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Harvard UniversityThe University of Qu…Johns Hopkins Univer…University of Toronto
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
1Harvard UniversityUnited States 81.9#1 (#1)17.5%0.6×70 +22.1%
2University of TorontoCanada 71.4#2 (#2)11.7%1.5×107 +7.7%
3The University of QueenslandAustralia 56.0- (#3)14.5%2.1×69 -5.8%
4Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 52.9- (#4)13.7%0.8×45 +16.9%
5University of WashingtonUnited States 52.4- (#5)16.0%1.2×47 +9.1%
6Monash UniversityAustralia 52.1- (#6)13.2%1.9×64 +19.9%
7University College LondonUnited Kingdom 46.5- (#13)18.3%0.8×47 +13.2%
8Universitas Muhammadiyah GresikIndonesia 46.0#8 (#50)12.9%22.8×155 +438.1%
9Universitas Patria ArthaIndonesia 45.6#7 (#42)8.5%8.1×222 +119.7%
10Mercu Buana UniversityIndonesia 45.3#10 (#47)12.1%11.3×137 +39.8%

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 Occupational Therapy, country by country

Is Occupational Therapy research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 34% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Occupational Health and Safety Management, Assistive Technology in Communication and Mobility and Pressure Ulcer Prevention and Management.

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 Occupational Therapy as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.17% in 2024.

still counting0.10%0.20%Occupational Therapy0.17% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Occupational Therapy 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%Occupational Therapy10.0% 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. Occupational Health and Safety Management+80%
  2. Assistive Technology in Communication and Mobility+34%
  3. Pressure Ulcer Prevention and Management+30%
  4. Occupational Therapy Practice and Research+29%
  5. Safe Handling of Antineoplastic Drugs+15%
  6. Occupational Health and Performance+14%
  7. Occupational Health and Safety in Workplaces-0%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

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

What does Occupational Therapy include?

Occupational Health and Safety Management: 24k fractional worksOccupational Therapy Practice and Research: 19k fractional worksPressure Ulcer Preventio…18kPressure Ulcer Prevention and Management: 18k fractional worksAssistive Technology in …17kAssistive Technology in Communication and Mobility: 17k fractional worksOccupational Health and …17kOccupational Health and Performance: 17k fractional worksOccupational Health and …14kOccupational Health and Safety in Workplaces: 14k fractional worksOccupational Health and Burnout: 12k fractional worksSafe Handling of Antineoplastic Drugs: 6,199 fractional works

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

Share who leads Occupational Therapy

Who leads Occupational Therapy, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Occupational Therapy, 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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