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Subfield · Medicine

Ophthalmology research

Ophthalmology is a subfield of Medicine. Science Explorer counts 338k 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: field of medicine treating eye disorders.

Research works
338k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
34k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
12
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+1%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
28% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Ophthalmology

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

What is Ophthalmology research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Optical Coherence Tomography, Glaucoma, Intravitreal Injection, Macular Degeneration, Retinal Pigment Epithelium, Intraocular Pressure. Gaining share since 2011-15: COVID-19, Ocular Findings, Medical Students, Ophthalmoscopy. Losing share: Laser Eye Injuries, Retinal Damage, Intraocular Pressure, Optic Nerve.

▲ 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 29 words, with their numbers
  1. Optical Coherence Tomography23k◆ 1.01×2 topics
  2. Glaucoma22k◆ 0.87×2 topics
  3. Intravitreal Injection19k◆ 1.07×2 topics
  4. Macular Degeneration15k◆ 1.08×1 topic
  5. Retinal Pigment Epithelium15k◆ 1.08×1 topic
  6. Intraocular Pressure15k▼ 0.86×1 topic
  7. Optic Nerve15k▼ 0.86×1 topic
  8. Epidemiology13k◆ 1.03×2 topics
  9. Endophthalmitis9,557◆ 1.02×2 topics
  10. COVID-198,407▲ 1.42×1 topic
  11. Ocular Findings8,407▲ 1.42×1 topic
  12. Behçet's Disease7,389◆ 1.05×1 topic
  13. Uveitis7,389◆ 1.05×1 topic
  14. Femtosecond Laser7,388◆ 0.89×1 topic
  15. Intraocular Lens Implantation7,388◆ 0.89×1 topic
  16. Intraocular Foreign Bodies5,153◆ 0.99×1 topic
  17. Ocular Trauma Score5,153◆ 0.99×1 topic
  18. Keratitis4,403◆ 1.04×1 topic
  19. Ocular Infections4,403◆ 1.04×1 topic
  20. Retinoblastoma4,026◆ 0.98×1 topic
  21. Uveal Melanoma4,026◆ 0.98×1 topic
  22. Medical Students3,143▲ 1.17×1 topic
  23. Ophthalmoscopy3,143▲ 1.17×1 topic
  24. Laser Eye Injuries2,898▼ 0.71×1 topic
  25. Retinal Damage2,898▼ 0.71×1 topic
  26. Chloroquine1,586◆ 1.02×1 topic
  27. Retinopathy1,586◆ 1.02×1 topic
  28. Dacryocystorhinostomy1,298◆ 0.91×1 topic
  29. Endoscopic1,298◆ 0.91×1 topic

Which countries lead Ophthalmology research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, China and the United Kingdom rank highest in Ophthalmology. By volume, the United States and China publish the most (13k and 9.7k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 1.19× citation excellence · 2.27× journals · 100% breadth 12.4% top 10% · 11k works
  2. 2 China #7 all time 1.35× citation excellence · 0.90× journals · 100% breadth 14.5% top 10% · 8.3k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #2 all time 1.30× citation excellence · 1.75× journals · 100% breadth 13.7% top 10% · 2.4k works
  4. 4 Germany #3 all time 1.43× citation excellence · 1.22× journals · 100% breadth 10.9% top 10% · 1.9k works
  5. 5 Australia #5 all time 1.66× citation excellence · 1.45× journals · 100% breadth 17.3% top 10% · 972 works
  6. 6 France #6 all time 1.31× citation excellence · 1.47× journals · 100% breadth 11.2% top 10% · 1.2k works
  7. 7 Singapore #4 all time 1.84× citation excellence · 1.80× journals · 100% breadth 19.7% top 10% · 403 works
  8. 8 Switzerland #9 all time 1.37× citation excellence · 1.75× journals · 100% breadth 12.9% top 10% · 497 works
  9. 9 Canada #8 all time 1.14× citation excellence · 1.42× journals · 100% breadth 13.0% top 10% · 937 works
  10. 10 Netherlands #10 all time 1.77× citation excellence · 1.48× journals · 100% breadth 19.4% top 10% · 344 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 43 countries ranked in Ophthalmology. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Ophthalmology

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 13k works
  2. 2 China 9.7k works
  3. 3 India 7.1k works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 2.9k works
  5. 5 Japan 2.5k works
  6. 6 Germany 2.3k works
  7. 7 Türkiye 2.2k works
  8. 8 Spain 1.9k works
  9. 9 Italy 1.8k works
  10. 10 South Korea 1.8k 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 States: 28.0%China: 21.7%India: 15.9%United Kingdom: 6.5%6 others listed: 27.9%28%largest
United States13k · 28.0%China9,714 · 21.7%India7,144 · 15.9%United Kingdom2,900 · 6.5%6 others listed13k · 27.9%

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

Which institutions lead Ophthalmology research?

Harvard University (United States) ranks first in Ophthalmology on research quality in 2022-now, followed by Johns Hopkins University and University College London.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harvard University United States · Cambridge · #1 all time 16.3% top 10% · 481 works
  2. 2 Johns Hopkins University United States · Baltimore · #2 all time 16.1% top 10% · 280 works
  3. 3 University College London United Kingdom · London · #3 all time 15.5% top 10% · 347 works
  4. 4 National Institutes of Health United States · Bethesda · #4 all time 19.2% top 10% · 109 works
  5. 5 Stanford University United States · Stanford · #8 all time 15.5% top 10% · 129 works
  6. 6 Sun Yat-sen University China · Guangzhou · #28 all time 14.8% top 10% · 388 works
  7. 7 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China · Shanghai · #34 all time 17.6% top 10% · 272 works
  8. 8 University of California, San Francisco United States · San Francisco · #6 all time 13.5% top 10% · 115 works
  9. 9 University of California San Diego United States · San Diego · #5 all time 15.8% top 10% · 108 works
  10. 10 The University of Melbourne Australia · Melbourne · #15 all time 22.0% top 10% · 125 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 146 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Ophthalmology.

Top 100 Ophthalmology institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 All India Institute of Medical SciencesIndia 617 works
  2. 2 Harvard UniversityUnited States 545 works
  3. 3 L V Prasad Eye InstituteIndia 480 works
  4. 4 Sun Yat-sen UniversityChina 434 works
  5. 5 Capital Medical UniversityChina 431 works
  6. 6 University College LondonUnited Kingdom 416 works
  7. 7 Aravind Eye HospitalIndia 411 works
  8. 8 Wenzhou Medical UniversityChina 323 works
  9. 9 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 319 works
  10. 10 Creative CommonsUnited States 306 works

Who are the leading researchers in Ophthalmology?

Counting only their work in Ophthalmology, Tien Yin Wong, Robert Neal Weinreb and Ronald Klein have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Tien Yin Wong Singapore · #8,090 worldwide overall 280.7 of 757 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Robert Neal Weinreb United States · #39,450 worldwide overall 172.0 of 542 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Ronald Klein United States · #15,872 worldwide overall 155.3 of 383 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 K. Bailey Freund United States · #29,225 worldwide overall 124.2 of 343 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Jost Bruno Jonas Germany · #28,164 worldwide overall 136.1 of 568 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Frank Gerhard Holz Germany · #86,164 worldwide overall 120.6 of 415 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Srinivas Reddy Sadda United States · #73,061 worldwide overall 113.7 of 358 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Richard F. Spaide United States · #26,850 worldwide overall 88.7 of 237 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Emily Y. Chew United States · #36,890 worldwide overall 84.9 of 244 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Jie Jin Wang Australia · #15,567 worldwide overall 79.1 of 190 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Ophthalmology alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 738,772 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 Ophthalmology researchers

What are the most cited papers in Ophthalmology?

The most cited paper in Ophthalmology is "Repertoires of Autophagy in the Pathogenesis of Ocular Diseases" (Yujie Li, Qin Li Jiang, Guo-Fan Cao et al., 2015), with 16,339 citations. Next come "Optical Coherence Tomography" (13,894) and "The biology of VEGF and its receptors" (9,633).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Repertoires of Autophagy in the Pathogenesis of Ocular Diseases Yujie Li, Qin Li Jiang, Guo-Fan Cao et al. · Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry Open access 2015 16,339
2 Optical Coherence Tomography David T. Huang, Eric A. Swanson, Charles P. Lin et al. · Science Open access 22 Nov 1991 13,894
3 The biology of VEGF and its receptors Napoleone Ferrara, Hans‐Peter Gerber, Jennifer E. LeCouter · Nature Medicine 30 May 2003 9,633
4 Development and Validation of a Deep Learning Algorithm for Detection of Diabetic Retinopathy in Retinal Fundus Photographs Varun Gulshan, Lily Peng, Marc Coram et al. · JAMA 29 Nov 2016 7,873
5 Mutation and Cancer: Statistical Study of Retinoblastoma Alfred G. Knudson · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Open access Apr 1971 7,700
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Ophthalmology research done?

The largest centres of Ophthalmology research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), London (United Kingdom), Shanghai (China) and Seoul (South Korea). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Brecksville, Oxnard and Poland.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 1.5k works
  2. 2 LondonUnited Kingdom 1.1k works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 934 works
  4. 4 SeoulSouth Korea 907 works
  5. 5 MoscowRussia 832 works
  6. 6 New DelhiIndia 745 works
  7. 7 GuangzhouChina 718 works
  8. 8 ChennaiIndia 712 works
  9. 9 TokyoJapan 705 works
  10. 10 IstanbulTürkiye 700 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. BrecksvilleUS · 88.1 works117×
  2. OxnardUS · 28.3 works100×
  3. PolandUS · 39.1 works90×
  4. OsascoBR · 23.5 works65×
  5. San FranciscoUS · 72.4 works63×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Ophthalmology on the map

Ophthalmology research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Ophthalmology?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and University College London 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 16.46%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →National University …Johns Hopkins Univer…Harvard UniversityUniversity College L…
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 87.2#1 (#1)16.2%3.0×545 -13.6%
2Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 79.5#2 (#2)16.3%3.6×319 -19.7%
3University College LondonUnited Kingdom 74.7#3 (#3)14.6%4.5×416 -18.9%
4National University of SingaporeSingapore 65.3#12 (#7)19.2%1.9×132 -28.3%
5University of California San DiegoUnited States 64.8#9 (#5)15.7%2.1×116 -7.7%
6Stanford UniversityUnited States 61.8#5 (#8)16.5%1.7×146 -22.1%
7University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 61.0#8 (#6)14.2%3.2×131 -28.4%
8The University of MelbourneAustralia 60.9#10 (#15)21.3%2.2×143 -16.4%
9University of MiamiUnited States 58.7#31 (#12)13.4%8.0×284 -22.4%
10Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 58.1#7 (#34)17.2%1.8×304 +20.7%

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 Ophthalmology, country by country

Is Ophthalmology research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 1% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021. The fastest-growing topics are Retinal Diseases and Treatments, Ocular Diseases and Behçet’s Syndrome and Ocular Infections and Treatments.

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 Ophthalmology as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.26% in 2024.

still counting0.20%0.40%Ophthalmology0.25% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Ophthalmology 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%Ophthalmology10.1% 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. Retinal Diseases and Treatments+5%
  2. Ocular Diseases and Behçet’s Syndrome+5%
  3. Ocular Infections and Treatments+5%
  4. Ocular Oncology and Treatments+4%
  5. Traumatic Ocular and Foreign Body Injuries+3%
  6. Ophthalmology and Visual Health Research+1%
  7. Retinal and Optic Conditions-0%
  8. Drug-Induced Ocular Toxicity-4%
  9. Glaucoma and retinal disorders-8%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

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

What does Ophthalmology include?

Glaucoma and retinal dis…73kGlaucoma and retinal disorders: 73k fractional worksRetinal Diseases and Treatments: 56k fractional worksIntraocular Surgery and …39kIntraocular Surgery and Lenses: 39k fractional worksOcular Diseases and Behç…30kOcular Diseases and Behçet’s Syndrome: 30k fractional worksRetinal and Optic Conditions: 29k fractional worksTraumatic Ocular and Foreign Body Injuries: 24k fractional worksOcular and Laser Science…22kOcular and Laser Science Research: 22k fractional worksOcular Infections and Treatments: 20k fractional worksOcular Oncology and Treatments: 19k fractional worksOphthalmology and Visual Health Research: 12k fractional worksDrug-Induced Ocular Toxicity: 8,019 fractional worksNasolacrimal Duct Obstruction Treatments: 6,127 fractional works

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

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Who leads Ophthalmology, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Ophthalmology, 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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