Science Explorer Interactive view Map
Subfield · Computer Science

Signal Processing research

Signal Processing is a subfield of Computer Science. Science Explorer counts 346k research works in it since 1950. 18.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: models and analyzes data representations of physical events.

Research works
346k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
62k
per year above
Top-10% rate
18.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
10
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+13%
the tick is no change

What is Signal Processing research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2019–23, its most used keywords are Deep Learning, Feature Extraction, Android Malware, Detection, Beamforming, Audio-Visual Speech Recognition. Gaining share since 2009–13: Android Malware, Detection, Clustering, Time Series, Deep Learning. Losing share: H.264/AVC, Video Coding, FFT, Filter Banks.

▲ 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 23 words, with their numbers
  1. Deep Learning47k▲ 1.47×4 topics
  2. Feature Extraction22k▲ 1.35×3 topics
  3. Android Malware18k▲ 2.3×1 topic
  4. Detection18k▲ 2.3×1 topic
  5. Beamforming16k◆ 1.01×2 topics
  6. Audio-Visual Speech Recognition13k◆ 1.01×1 topic
  7. Speech Enhancement13k◆ 1.01×1 topic
  8. Audio Signal Classification9,675▲ 1.32×1 topic
  9. Music Information Retrieval9,675▲ 1.32×1 topic
  10. GPS Trajectories7,383▼ 0.51×1 topic
  11. Trajectory Data Mining7,383▼ 0.51×1 topic
  12. Blind Separation6,597▼ 0.64×1 topic
  13. Independent Component Analysis6,597▼ 0.64×1 topic
  14. Clustering6,515▲ 1.66×1 topic
  15. Time Series6,515▲ 1.66×1 topic
  16. Biometric Recognition5,822◆ 1.14×1 topic
  17. Security5,822◆ 1.14×1 topic
  18. Array Processing2,732◆ 1.02×1 topic
  19. Direction-of-Arrival Estimation2,732◆ 1.02×1 topic
  20. H.264/AVC2,131▼ 0.38×1 topic
  21. Video Coding2,131▼ 0.38×1 topic
  22. FFT1,539▼ 0.47×1 topic
  23. Filter Banks1,539▼ 0.47×1 topic

Which countries lead Signal Processing research?

On research quality in 2022–2025, China, the United States and India rank highest in Signal Processing. By volume, China and India publish the most (18k and 9.3k works in 2022–2025).

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China · #2 all time 17.2% top 10% · 18k works
  2. 2 United States · #1 all time 17.7% top 10% · 7.5k works
  3. 3 India · #5 all time 13.2% top 10% · 9.3k works
  4. 4 United Kingdom · #3 all time 20.4% top 10% · 2k works
  5. 5 Australia · #8 all time 27.3% top 10% · 917 works
  6. 6 Saudi Arabia · #18 all time 36.0% top 10% · 725 works
  7. 7 Canada · #6 all time 20.9% top 10% · 1.2k works
  8. 8 Germany · #4 all time 15.6% top 10% · 2k works
  9. 9 Italy · #9 all time 20.7% top 10% · 1.3k works
  10. 10 South Korea · #12 all time 18.4% top 10% · 1.5k 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 49 countries ranked in Signal Processing. Composite of field-normalised excellence (50%), output (30%) and citations (20%); the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Signal Processing

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China 18k works
  2. 2 India 9.3k works
  3. 3 United States 7.5k works
  4. 4 Japan 2.1k works
  5. 5 Germany 2k works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 2k works
  7. 7 South Korea 1.5k works
  8. 8 France 1.4k works
  9. 9 Italy 1.3k works
  10. 10 Canada 1.2k 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.

China: 38.9%India: 20.2%United States: 16.3%Japan: 4.5%6 others listed: 20.1%39%largest
China18k · 38.9%India9,321 · 20.2%United States7,517 · 16.3%Japan2,088 · 4.5%6 others listed9,297 · 20.1%

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

Which institutions lead Signal Processing research?

Tsinghua University (China) ranks first in Signal Processing on research quality in 2022–2025, followed by Zhejiang University and University of Science and Technology of China.

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Tsinghua University China · Beijing · #8 all time 23.3% top 10% · 308 works
  2. 2 Zhejiang University China · Hangzhou · #43 all time 22.6% top 10% · 265 works
  3. 3 University of Science and Technology of China China · Hefei · #44 all time 24.0% top 10% · 262 works
  4. 4 Nanyang Technological University Singapore · Singapore · #11 all time 34.5% top 10% · 171 works
  5. 5 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #22 all time 20.8% top 10% · 267 works
  6. 6 University of Electronic Science and Technology of China China · Chengdu · #6 all time 17.8% top 10% · 360 works
  7. 7 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China · Shanghai · #59 all time 22.5% top 10% · 318 works
  8. 8 Vellore Institute of Technology University India · Vellore 19.0% top 10% · 258 works
  9. 9 Northwestern Polytechnical University China · Xi'an · #53 all time 20.3% top 10% · 302 works
  10. 10 National University of Defense Technology China · Changsha · #38 all time 19.9% top 10% · 286 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 150 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Signal Processing.

Top 100 Signal Processing institutions

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 University of Electronic Science and Technology of China China 359 works
  2. 2 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China 318 works
  3. 3 Tsinghua University China 308 works
  4. 4 Northwestern Polytechnical University China 302 works
  5. 5 Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications China 300 works
  6. 6 National University of Defense Technology China 286 works
  7. 7 Xidian University China 281 works
  8. 8 Chinese Academy of Sciences China 267 works
  9. 9 Zhejiang University China 265 works
  10. 10 University of Science and Technology of China China 262 works

Who are the leading researchers in Signal Processing?

Among the most productive authors in Signal Processing, Andrew Zisserman, Yoshua Bengio and Li Fei-Fei rank highest on the composite score.

  1. 1 Andrew Zisserman United Kingdom · #3 worldwide 25k citations · 241 works
  2. 2 Yoshua Bengio Canada · #4 worldwide 17k citations · 298 works
  3. 3 Li Fei-Fei United States · #9 worldwide 17k citations · 188 works
  4. 4 Deborah Estrin United States · #60 worldwide 5.9k citations · 183 works
  5. 5 Chen Change Loy Singapore · #75 worldwide 7.7k citations · 173 works
  6. 6 Serge Belongie United States · #143 worldwide 14k citations · 117 works
  7. 7 Leonidas Guibas United States · #165 worldwide 6.3k citations · 229 works
  8. 8 Anil K. Jain United States · #178 worldwide 6.3k citations · 275 works
  9. 9 Li Deng United States · #211 worldwide 4.3k citations · 131 works
  10. 10 Yann LeCun United States · #219 worldwide 5.4k citations · 123 works

Re-ranked on the composite score from the 5,541 highest-output authors in Signal Processing. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Signal Processing researchers

Where is Signal Processing research done?

The largest centres of Signal Processing research in 2022–2025 are Beijing (China), Xi'an (China), Shanghai (China) and Nanjing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Marina del Rey, Wachtberg and Cypress.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beijing China 3.8k works
  2. 2 Xi'an China 1.2k works
  3. 3 Shanghai China 1.2k works
  4. 4 Nanjing China 1.1k works
  5. 5 Chennai India 1k works
  6. 6 Tokyo Japan 872 works
  7. 7 Chengdu China 824 works
  8. 8 Seoul South Korea 765 works
  9. 9 Hangzhou China 730 works
  10. 10 Wuhan China 711 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Marina del ReyUS · 27.2 works20×
  2. WachtbergDE · 26.9 works20×
  3. CypressUS · 21.1 works12×
  4. RedmondUS · 62.4 works11×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Signal Processing on the map

Signal Processing research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Signal Processing?

Among universities, judged by research, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Vellore Institute of Technology University and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications 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%20%40%mean 23.27%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham: 216, 16.3%Vellore Institute of Technology University: 258, 19.0%Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications: 300, 16.0%Nanyang Technological University: 171, 34.5%National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra: 49, 26.8%Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation: 127, 12.7%King Abdulaziz University: 56, 41.5%Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen: 51, 30.5%Xidian University: 281, 22.7%SRM Institute of Science and Technology: 238, 12.7%Nanyang Technologica…Vellore Institute of…Amrita Vishwa Vidyap…Beijing University o…
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
1Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham India 58.616.3%6.5×216 +180.9%
2Vellore Institute of Technology University India 57.019.0%4.2×258 +296.0%
3Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications China 55.816.0%7.8×300 +37.8%
4Nanyang Technological University Singapore 55.634.5%3.4×171 -22.3%
5National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra India 55.626.8%7.0×49 +259.8%
6Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation India 55.312.7%7.2×127 +515.5%
7King Abdulaziz University Saudi Arabia 54.541.5%1.6×56 +130.8%
8Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen China 54.430.5%4.4×51 +160.1%
9Xidian University China 54.022.7%6.1×281 +2.8%
10SRM Institute of Science and Technology India 52.812.7%4.5×238 +508.5%

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 Signal Processing research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 13% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Advanced Malware Detection Techniques, Time Series Analysis and Forecasting and Biometric Identification and Security.

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. Advanced Malware Detection Techniques+186%
  2. Time Series Analysis and Forecasting+101%
  3. Biometric Identification and Security+67%
  4. Music and Audio Processing+40%
  5. Direction-of-Arrival Estimation Techniques+31%
  6. Speech and Audio Processing+20%
  7. Blind Source Separation Techniques-7%
  8. Video Coding and Compression Technologies-35%
  9. Digital Filter Design and Implementation-41%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

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

What does Signal Processing include?

Speech and Audio Processing: 64k fractional worksData Management and Algorithms: 55k fractional worksAdvanced Malware Detecti…51kAdvanced Malware Detection Techniques: 51k fractional worksBlind Source Separation …43kBlind Source Separation Techniques: 43k fractional worksMusic and Audio Processing: 37k fractional worksTime Series Analysis and Forecasting: 24k fractional worksBiometric Identification…22kBiometric Identification and Security: 22k fractional worksDigital Filter Design and Implementation: 19k fractional worksVideo Coding and Compression Technologies: 19k fractional worksDirection-of-Arrival Estimation Techniques: 14k fractional works

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