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Subfield · Nursing

Research and Theory research

Research and Theory is a subfield of Nursing. Science Explorer counts 22k 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: systematic study undertaken to increase knowledge.

Research works
22k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
1
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+49%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
38% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Research and Theory

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

Which countries lead Research and Theory research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, China and the United Kingdom rank highest in Research and Theory. By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.8k and 681 works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 0.71× citation excellence · 1.70× journals · 100% breadth 5.8% top 10% · 1.3k works
  2. 2 China #2 all time 1.60× citation excellence · 0.98× journals · 100% breadth 21.5% top 10% · 508 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #3 all time 0.92× citation excellence · 1.42× journals · 100% breadth 9.7% top 10% · 336 works
  4. 4 Australia #4 all time 1.03× citation excellence · 1.18× journals · 100% breadth 10.4% top 10% · 344 works
  5. 5 Iran #7 all time 1.11× citation excellence · 0.13× journals · 100% breadth 12.0% top 10% · 238 works
  6. 6 Türkiye #8 all time 0.99× citation excellence · 0.14× journals · 100% breadth 6.4% top 10% · 231 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 6 countries ranked in Research and Theory. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Research and Theory

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.8k works
  2. 2 China 681 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 440 works
  4. 4 Australia 417 works
  5. 5 Türkiye 317 works
  6. 6 Iran 282 works
  7. 7 Canada 249 works
  8. 8 Saudi Arabia 164 works
  9. 9 South Korea 150 works
  10. 10 Sweden 144 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: 38.5%China: 14.7%United Kingdom: 9.5%Australia: 9.0%6 others listed: 28.2%38%largest
United States1,780 · 38.5%China681 · 14.7%United Kingdom440 · 9.5%Australia417 · 9.0%6 others listed1,306 · 28.2%

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

Which institutions lead Research and Theory research?

By volume in 2022-now, Iranshahr University publishes the most Research and Theory research, followed by Sichuan University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Iranshahr UniversityIran 35 works
  2. 2 Sichuan UniversityChina 32 works
  3. 3 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 30 works
  4. 4 King Saud UniversitySaudi Arabia 28 works
  5. 5 Central South UniversityChina 25 works
  6. 6 University of TorontoCanada 23 works
  7. 7 Harvard UniversityUnited States 23 works
  8. 8 University of PennsylvaniaUnited States 22 works
  9. 9 La Trobe UniversityAustralia 22 works
  10. 10 Apple (United States)United States 22 works

Who are the leading researchers in Research and Theory?

Counting only their work in Research and Theory, Linda H. Aiken, Heather K. Spence Laschinger and Douglas M. Sloane have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Linda H. Aiken United States · #6,102 worldwide overall 34.9 of 55 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Heather K. Spence Laschinger Canada · #13,219 worldwide overall 26.5 of 43 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Douglas M. Sloane United States · #5,098 worldwide overall 16.8 of 21 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Matthew D. McHugh United States · #29,879 worldwide overall 12.3 of 22 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Peter Griffiths United Kingdom · #337,810 worldwide overall 14.4 of 34 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Jane Ball United Kingdom · #144,866 worldwide overall 12.4 of 18 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Greta G. Cummings Canada · #97,226 worldwide overall 13.5 of 34 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Carol A Wong Canada · #55,807 worldwide overall 12.0 of 20 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Sean Patrick Clarke United States · #170,054 worldwide overall 10.5 of 26 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Walter Sermeus Belgium · #366,942 worldwide overall 9.7 of 20 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Research and Theory alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 75,652 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 Research and Theory researchers

What are the most cited papers in Research and Theory?

The most cited paper in Research and Theory is "The qualitative content analysis process" (Satu Elo, Helvi Aulikki Kyngäs, 2008), with 22,967 citations. Next come "Qualitative content analysis in nursing research: concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness" (21,197) and "Hospital Nurse Staffing and Patient Mortality, Nurse Burnout, and Job Dissatisfaction" (5,249).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The qualitative content analysis process Satu Elo, Helvi Aulikki Kyngäs · Journal of Advanced Nursing Open access 18 Mar 2008 22,967
2 Qualitative content analysis in nursing research: concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness Ulla Hällgren Graneheim, Berit M Lundman · Nurse Education Today 7 Nov 2003 21,197
3 Hospital Nurse Staffing and Patient Mortality, Nurse Burnout, and Job Dissatisfaction Linda H. Aiken · JAMA 23 Oct 2002 5,249
4 The problem of rigor in qualitative research Margarete Sandelowski · Advances in Nursing Science Apr 1986 2,783
5 Making it safe: the effects of leader inclusiveness and professional status on psychological safety and improvement efforts in health care teams Ingrid M. Nembhard, Amy C. Edmondson · Journal of Organizational Behavior 21 Sep 2006 2,296
All 98 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Research and Theory research done?

The largest centres of Research and Theory research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Melbourne (Australia) and Tehran (Iran). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Iranshahr and Herzliya.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 94 works
  2. 2 RiyadhSaudi Arabia 82 works
  3. 3 MelbourneAustralia 82 works
  4. 4 TehranIran 72 works
  5. 5 New YorkUnited States 70 works
  6. 6 IstanbulTürkiye 66 works
  7. 7 SeoulSouth Korea 62 works
  8. 8 ChengduChina 59 works
  9. 9 BrisbaneAustralia 57 works
  10. 10 SydneyAustralia 51 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. IranshahrIR · 34.5 works60×
  2. HerzliyaIL · 22.0 works31×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Research and Theory on the map

Research and Theory research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Research and Theory?

Among universities, judged by research, Sichuan University, Alexandria University and King Saud University score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 23%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Alexandria UniversitySichuan UniversityCentral South Univer…King Saud University
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.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Sichuan UniversityChina 71.624.7%2.3×32 +335.1%
2Alexandria UniversityEgypt 64.030.2%5.4×16 +315.6%
3King Saud UniversitySaudi Arabia 63.010.5%4.6×28 +122.0%
4Central South UniversityChina 63.022.8%2.1×25 +279.3%
5Iranshahr UniversityIran 62.612.4%67.8×34 +107.7%
6University of PennsylvaniaUnited States 60.717.8%3.4×22 +31.5%
7Sultan Qaboos UniversityOman 57.919.2%9.7×11 +19.6%
8Ewha Womans UniversitySouth Korea 57.536.9%7.3×10 +38.1%
9Zhejiang UniversityChina 56.126.4%0.9×16 +342.1%
10National University of SingaporeSingapore 56.129.1%1.9×14 +2.1%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Research and Theory, country by country

Is Research and Theory research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 49% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Nursing education 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 Research and Theory as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.025% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Research and Theory0.036% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Research and Theory 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%Research and Theory10.0% 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.

What does Research and Theory include?

Discussion

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