Public Administration research
Public Administration is a subfield of Social Sciences. Science Explorer counts 87k research works in it since 1950. 10.2% 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%
- 8.8k per year above
- Top-10% rate
- 10.2% share of its works in the world top 10%
- Topics
- 3
- Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
- +2% the tick is no change
- Largest producer
United States
37% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
What is Public Administration research about, and what is growing?
By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Labor Movement, Union Revitalization, Collaborative Governance, Public Management Reform, Burnout, Retention. Gaining share since 2011-15: Burnout, Retention. Losing share: Labor Movement, Union Revitalization.
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 6 words, with their numbers
- Labor Movement5,479▼ 0.81×1 topic
- Union Revitalization5,479▼ 0.81×1 topic
- Collaborative Governance4,733◆ 1.08×1 topic
- Public Management Reform4,733◆ 1.08×1 topic
- Burnout4,511▲ 1.25×1 topic
- Retention4,511▲ 1.25×1 topic
Which countries lead Public Administration research?
On research quality in 2022-now, 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 (3k and 1.2k works in 2022-now).
By research quality, 2022-now
- 1
United States #1 all time
0.87× citation excellence · 1.54× journals · 100% breadth
9.6% top 10% · 2.7k works
- 2
United Kingdom #2 all time
1.35× citation excellence · 1.43× journals · 100% breadth
15.3% top 10% · 1.1k works
- 3
Germany #4 all time
1.20× citation excellence · 1.39× journals · 100% breadth
9.7% top 10% · 582 works
- 4
Australia #3 all time
1.09× citation excellence · 1.19× journals · 100% breadth
14.6% top 10% · 617 works
- 5
Netherlands #6 all time
1.44× citation excellence · 1.45× journals · 100% breadth
15.8% top 10% · 256 works
- 6
China #9 all time
1.16× citation excellence · 1.04× journals · 100% breadth
13.0% top 10% · 526 works
- 7
Canada #5 all time
1.00× citation excellence · 1.20× journals · 100% breadth
10.8% top 10% · 528 works
- 8
Sweden #8 all time
1.22× citation excellence · 1.38× journals · 100% breadth
11.9% top 10% · 296 works
- 9
Denmark #10 all time
1.31× citation excellence · 1.36× journals · 100% breadth
14.4% top 10% · 231 works
- 10
Norway #12 all time
1.31× citation excellence · 1.06× journals · 100% breadth
16.3% top 10% · 228 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 17 countries ranked in Public Administration. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.
All countries ranked in Public AdministrationBy volume, 2022-now
- 1
United States
3k works
- 2
United Kingdom
1.2k works
- 3
Australia
681 works
- 4
Germany
634 works
- 5
China
608 works
- 6
Canada
579 works
- 7
Italy
362 works
- 8
Indonesia
337 works
- 9
Sweden
323 works
- 10
India
291 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.
Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.
Which institutions lead Public Administration research?
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France) ranks first in Public Administration on research quality in 2022-now, followed by The University of Melbourne.
By research quality, 2022-now
- 1
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
France · Paris · #51 all time
3.0% top 10% · 67 works
- 2
The University of Melbourne Australia · Melbourne · #19 all time
10.1% top 10% · 66 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 2 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Public Administration.
Top 100 Public Administration institutionsBy volume, 2022-now
- 1
The University of MelbourneAustralia
72 works
- 2
Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance
70 works
- 3
City University of New YorkUnited States
62 works
- 4
Aalborg UniversityDenmark
58 works
- 5
University of TorontoCanada
57 works
- 6
Indiana UniversityUnited States
50 works
- 7
University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States
50 works
- 8
Institute for Peace Research and Security PolicyGermany
49 works
- 9
Aarhus UniversityDenmark
49 works
- 10
Sapienza University of RomeItaly
48 works
Who are the leading researchers in Public Administration?
Counting only their work in Public Administration, Donald P. Moynihan, Kenneth J. Meier and Michael P. Howlett have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.
- 1
Donald P. Moynihan
United States · #2,490 worldwide overall
21.4 of 42 papers here in the top 10%
- 2
Kenneth J. Meier
United States · #53,856 worldwide overall
23.7 of 69 papers here in the top 10%
- 3
Michael P. Howlett
Canada · #14,100 worldwide overall
23.1 of 48 papers here in the top 10%
- 4
George A. Boyne
United Kingdom · #32,708 worldwide overall
17.9 of 43 papers here in the top 10%
- 5
Laurence J. O’Toole
United States · #85,157 worldwide overall
18.4 of 48 papers here in the top 10%
- 6
Tom Christensen
Norway · #22,694 worldwide overall
18.2 of 47 papers here in the top 10%
- 7
Sanjay Kumar Pandey
United States · #39,484 worldwide overall
17.2 of 28 papers here in the top 10%
- 8
Christopher Pollitt
Belgium · #102,400 worldwide overall
15.7 of 36 papers here in the top 10%
- 9
Thomas A. Kochan
United States · #137,549 worldwide overall
19.3 of 73 papers here in the top 10%
- 10
B. Guy Peters
United States · #30,285 worldwide overall
16.9 of 51 papers here in the top 10%
Ranked on their work in Public Administration alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 140,350 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 Public Administration researchersWhere is Public Administration research done?
The largest centres of Public Administration research in 2022-now 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.
Largest cities, 2022-now
- 1
LondonUnited Kingdom
260 works
- 2
New YorkUnited States
192 works
- 3
MelbourneAustralia
169 works
- 4
Washington D.C.United States
133 works
- 5
TorontoCanada
116 works
- 6
SydneyAustralia
109 works
- 7
BeijingChina
107 works
- 8
OsloNorway
104 works
- 9
ParisFrance
90 works
- 10
CopenhagenDenmark
87 works
Where it is the local speciality
- RoskildeDK · 36.1 works18×
Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Public Administration than the world average.
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, University of Warwick, Cornell University and University of California, Berkeley 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.
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.
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 Public Administration, country by countryIs Public Administration research growing?
Output in 2022-2025 was 2% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Social Work Education and Practice and Labor Movements and Unions.
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 Public Administration as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.053% in 2024.
Fractional works of Public Administration 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.
- Social Work Education and Practice+12%
- Labor Movements and Unions+0%
- Public Policy and Administration Research-5%
Growth in output from 2018-21 to 2022-25. Every topic is a page of its own.
What does Public Administration include?
Share who leads Public Administration
The leading institutions' badges2Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot
Discussion
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