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Subfield · Social Sciences

Public Administration research

Public Administration is a subfield of Social Sciences. Science Explorer counts 87k research works in it since 1950. 21.5% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: generic term for the administrations that perform tasks of the state, including bodies governed by public law.

Research works
87k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
19k
per year above
Top-10% rate
21.5%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
3
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+5%
the tick is no change

What is Public Administration research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2019–23, its most used keywords are Labor Movement, Union Revitalization, Collaborative Governance, Public Management Reform, Burnout, Retention. Gaining share since 2009–13: Burnout, Retention, Collaborative Governance, Public Management Reform. Losing share: Labor Movement, Union Revitalization.

▲ gaining share of this field◆ holding its share▼ losing share

Size is the world's fractional works in 2019–23 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2009–13. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 6 words, with their numbers
  1. Labor Movement5,321▼ 0.77×1 topic
  2. Union Revitalization5,321▼ 0.77×1 topic
  3. Collaborative Governance4,931▲ 1.17×1 topic
  4. Public Management Reform4,931▲ 1.17×1 topic
  5. Burnout4,369▲ 1.25×1 topic
  6. Retention4,369▲ 1.25×1 topic

Which countries lead Public Administration research?

On research quality in 2022–2025, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany rank highest in Public Administration. By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (2.7k and 1.1k works in 2022–2025).

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States · #1 all time 18.2% top 10% · 2.7k works
  2. 2 United Kingdom · #2 all time 25.5% top 10% · 1.1k works
  3. 3 Germany · #3 all time 21.8% top 10% · 582 works
  4. 4 China · #10 all time 27.5% top 10% · 443 works
  5. 5 Italy · #7 all time 28.7% top 10% · 328 works
  6. 6 Australia · #5 all time 20.2% top 10% · 617 works
  7. 7 Netherlands · #4 all time 35.1% top 10% · 256 works
  8. 8 Canada · #6 all time 19.2% top 10% · 528 works
  9. 9 Norway · #14 all time 30.2% top 10% · 228 works
  10. 10 Denmark · #9 all time 30.2% top 10% · 231 works

The track on each row is that row’s top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the composite score, which the rate is only one part of.

Of 17 countries ranked in Public Administration. Composite of field-normalised excellence (50%), output (30%) and citations (20%); the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Public Administration

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States 2.7k works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 1.1k works
  3. 3 Australia 617 works
  4. 4 Germany 582 works
  5. 5 Canada 528 works
  6. 6 China 443 works
  7. 7 Italy 328 works
  8. 8 Sweden 296 works
  9. 9 Netherlands 256 works
  10. 10 Indonesia 252 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: 37.5%United Kingdom: 16.0%Australia: 8.7%Germany: 8.2%6 others listed: 29.6%38%largest
United States2,666 · 37.5%United Kingdom1,135 · 16.0%Australia617 · 8.7%Germany582 · 8.2%6 others listed2,102 · 29.6%

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

Which institutions lead Public Administration research?

The University of Melbourne (Australia) ranks first in Public Administration on research quality in 2022–2025, followed by .

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 The University of Melbourne Australia · Melbourne · #22 all time 11.1% top 10% · 65 works

The track on each row is that row’s top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the composite score, which the rate is only one part of.

Of 1 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Public Administration.

Top 100 Public Administration institutions

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 The University of MelbourneAustralia 65 works
  2. 2 Aalborg UniversityDenmark 55 works
  3. 3 University of TorontoCanada 48 works
  4. 4 Sapienza University of RomeItaly 47 works
  5. 5 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 45 works
  6. 6 Aarhus UniversityDenmark 45 works
  7. 7 Lund UniversitySweden 40 works
  8. 8 The University of SydneyAustralia 40 works
  9. 9 Copenhagen Business SchoolDenmark 38 works
  10. 10 Institute for Peace Research and Security PolicyGermany 36 works

Who are the leading researchers in Public Administration?

Among the most productive authors in Public Administration, William Diebold, Herbert A. Simon and Gordon Tullock rank highest on the composite score.

  1. 1 William Diebold United States · #33 worldwide 3.8k citations · 208 works
  2. 2 Herbert A. Simon United States · #65 worldwide 4.2k citations · 188 works
  3. 3 Gordon Tullock United States · #73 worldwide 3.2k citations · 169 works
  4. 4 Rob Knight United States · #97 worldwide 4.9k citations · 202 works
  5. 5 Richard N. Cooper United States · #109 worldwide 2.7k citations · 185 works
  6. 6 Rosabeth Moss Kanter United States · #169 worldwide 2.6k citations · 132 works
  7. 7 Martha C. Nussbaum United States · #279 worldwide 1.6k citations · 260 works
  8. 8 Элинор Остром United States · #503 worldwide 2.5k citations · 136 works
  9. 9 George Loewenstein United States · #577 worldwide 3.9k citations · 115 works
  10. 10 Robert M. Solow United States · #1,301 worldwide 1.7k citations · 117 works

Re-ranked on the composite score from the 3,931 highest-output authors in Public Administration. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Public Administration researchers

Where is Public Administration research done?

The largest centres of Public Administration research in 2022–2025 are London (United Kingdom), New York (United States), Melbourne (Australia) 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 Roskilde and Milton Keynes.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 London United Kingdom 237 works
  2. 2 New York United States 171 works
  3. 3 Melbourne Australia 156 works
  4. 4 Washington D.C. United States 116 works
  5. 5 Toronto Canada 105 works
  6. 6 Sydney Australia 96 works
  7. 7 Beijing China 95 works
  8. 8 Oslo Norway 95 works
  9. 9 Paris France 84 works
  10. 10 Copenhagen Denmark 80 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. RoskildeDK · 31.7 works17×
  2. Milton KeynesGB · 29.2 works15×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Public Administration on the map

Public Administration research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Public Administration?

Among universities, judged by research, Roskilde University, OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University and Leiden University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%25%50%75%mean 39.77%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Roskilde University: 32, 58.2%OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University: 23, 32.5%Leiden University: 30, 45.3%Tampere University: 33, 31.0%European University Institute: 9, 63.2%Aalborg University: 55, 20.8%Erasmus University Rotterdam: 29, 44.8%Copenhagen Business School: 38, 28.2%University of Oslo: 35, 41.6%University of Gothenburg: 35, 32.1%Roskilde UniversityLeiden UniversityOsloMet – Oslo Metro…Tampere University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 Roskilde UniversityDenmark 69.958.2%23.7×32 +0.7%
2 OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan UniversityNorway 69.332.5%22.5×23 +241.9%
3 Leiden UniversityNetherlands 66.045.3%8.0×30 +98.2%
4 Tampere UniversityFinland 65.231.0%10.4×33 +108.9%
5 European University InstituteItaly 63.063.2%10.6×9 +21.3%
6 Aalborg UniversityDenmark 62.720.8%9.7×55 +57.7%
7 Erasmus University RotterdamNetherlands 62.644.8%9.1×29 +1.1%
8 Copenhagen Business SchoolDenmark 62.228.2%20.9×38 +55.7%
9 University of OsloNorway 59.541.6%6.5×35 +53.7%
10 University of GothenburgSweden 57.632.1%8.2×35 +19.6%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Public Administration research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 5% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Public Policy and Administration Research, Social Work Education and Practice and Labor Movements and Unions.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

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. Public Policy and Administration Research+74%
  2. Social Work Education and Practice+64%
  3. Labor Movements and Unions+14%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2005–09 to 2015–19. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Public Administration include?