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Subfield · Computer Science

Software research

Software is a subfield of Computer Science. Science Explorer counts 99k research works in it since 1950. 23.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: non-tangible executable component of a computer.

Research works
99k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
23k
per year above
Top-10% rate
23.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
5
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
-7%
the tick is no change

What is Software research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2019–23, its most used keywords are Architecture-Based Approach, Software Reliability Modeling, Automated Testing, Software Fault Localization, Software Development, Domain-Specific Languages. Gaining share since 2009–13: Automated Testing, Software Fault Localization, Information Systems, Modeling. Losing share: Domain-Specific Languages, Model-Driven Engineering, Software Development.

▲ 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 11 words, with their numbers
  1. Architecture-Based Approach6,708◆ 1.08×1 topic
  2. Software Reliability Modeling6,708◆ 1.08×1 topic
  3. Automated Testing6,582▲ 1.25×1 topic
  4. Software Fault Localization6,582▲ 1.25×1 topic
  5. Software Development3,361▼ 0.66×2 topics
  6. Domain-Specific Languages2,440▼ 0.56×1 topic
  7. Model-Driven Engineering2,440▼ 0.56×1 topic
  8. Information Systems921▲ 1.19×1 topic
  9. Modeling921▲ 1.19×1 topic
  10. End-User Software Engineering585◆ 0.95×1 topic
  11. Meta-design585◆ 0.95×1 topic

Which countries lead Software research?

On research quality in 2022–2025, China, the United States and Germany rank highest in Software. By volume, China and the United States publish the most (2.6k and 2.1k works in 2022–2025).

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China · #4 all time 20.8% top 10% · 2.6k works
  2. 2 United States · #1 all time 19.6% top 10% · 2.1k works
  3. 3 Germany · #2 all time 18.4% top 10% · 995 works
  4. 4 India · #10 all time 15.6% top 10% · 1.1k works
  5. 5 Canada · #5 all time 27.4% top 10% · 400 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom · #3 all time 20.1% top 10% · 491 works
  7. 7 Italy · #6 all time 24.8% top 10% · 406 works
  8. 8 Netherlands · #8 all time 24.1% top 10% · 217 works
  9. 9 Spain · #14 all time 17.0% top 10% · 274 works
  10. 10 France · #7 all time 12.2% top 10% · 363 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 12 countries ranked in Software. Composite of field-normalised excellence (50%), output (30%) and citations (20%); the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Software

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China 2.6k works
  2. 2 United States 2.1k works
  3. 3 India 1.1k works
  4. 4 Germany 995 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 491 works
  6. 6 Italy 406 works
  7. 7 Canada 400 works
  8. 8 France 363 works
  9. 9 Japan 347 works
  10. 10 Brazil 313 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: 28.3%United States: 23.0%India: 12.0%Germany: 11.0%6 others listed: 25.7%28%largest
China2,555 · 28.3%United States2,081 · 23.0%India1,086 · 12.0%Germany995 · 11.0%6 others listed2,319 · 25.7%

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

Which institutions lead Software research?

Beihang University (China) ranks first in Software on research quality in 2022–2025, followed by Peking University and Nanjing University.

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beihang University China · Beijing · #43 all time 20.1% top 10% · 102 works
  2. 2 Peking University China · Beijing · #21 all time 36.2% top 10% · 61 works
  3. 3 Nanjing University China · Nanjing · #41 all time 29.7% top 10% · 96 works
  4. 4 National University of Defense Technology China · Changsha · #80 all time 17.1% top 10% · 92 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 4 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Software.

Top 100 Software institutions

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beihang UniversityChina 102 works
  2. 2 Nanjing UniversityChina 96 works
  3. 3 National University of Defense TechnologyChina 92 works
  4. 4 Peking UniversityChina 61 works
  5. 5 Nanjing University of Aeronautics and AstronauticsChina 57 works
  6. 6 Technical University of MunichGermany 51 works
  7. 7 Tsinghua UniversityChina 50 works
  8. 8 University of LuxembourgLuxembourg 47 works
  9. 9 RWTH Aachen UniversityGermany 47 works
  10. 10 Carnegie Mellon UniversityUnited States 46 works

Who are the leading researchers in Software?

Among the most productive authors in Software, Xiangyu Zhang, Dawn Song and Wil M. P. van der Aalst rank highest on the composite score.

  1. 1 Xiangyu Zhang ?? · #282 worldwide 6.9k citations · 114 works
  2. 2 Dawn Song United States · #303 worldwide 3.8k citations · 150 works
  3. 3 Wil M. P. van der Aalst Netherlands · #736 worldwide 5.5k citations · 408 works
  4. 4 Brad A. Myers United States · #2,321 worldwide 1.6k citations · 124 works
  5. 5 Marlon Dumas Estonia · #2,716 worldwide 1.5k citations · 128 works
  6. 6 Christopher Kruegel United States · #2,771 worldwide 1.7k citations · 89 works
  7. 7 Amir Pnueli Israel · #2,994 worldwide 1.8k citations · 86 works
  8. 8 Brian Randell United Kingdom · #3,006 worldwide 1.4k citations · 77 works
  9. 9 Reinhard Wilhelm Germany · #3,146 worldwide 864 citations · 95 works
  10. 10 Giovanni Vigna United States · #3,168 worldwide 1.5k citations · 90 works

Re-ranked on the composite score from the 4,324 highest-output authors in Software. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Software researchers

Where is Software research done?

The largest centres of Software research in 2022–2025 are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Shanghai (China) and London (United Kingdom). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Västerås and Lugano.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beijing China 687 works
  2. 2 Nanjing China 244 works
  3. 3 Shanghai China 209 works
  4. 4 London United Kingdom 145 works
  5. 5 Munich Germany 140 works
  6. 6 Changsha China 122 works
  7. 7 Tokyo Japan 117 works
  8. 8 Xi'an China 107 works
  9. 9 Wuhan China 106 works
  10. 10 Singapore Singapore 102 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. VästeråsSE · 31.7 works46×
  2. LuganoCH · 30.6 works23×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Software on the map

Software research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Software?

Among universities, judged by research, Singapore Management University, University of Luxembourg and Nanjing 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 36.37%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Singapore Management University: 31, 47.1%University of Luxembourg: 47, 27.1%Nanjing University: 96, 29.7%Università della Svizzera italiana: 30, 33.8%Gran Sasso Science Institute: 14, 19.2%Polytechnique Montréal: 23, 41.9%Carnegie Mellon University: 46, 30.4%Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management: 8, 66.3%National University of Ireland, Maynooth: 8, 49.0%Mondragon Unibertsitatea: 11, 19.2%Singapore Management…Università della Svi…Nanjing UniversityUniversity of Luxemb…
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 Singapore Management UniversitySingapore 68.647.1%22.0×31 +31.3%
2 University of LuxembourgLuxembourg 62.127.1%15.6×47 +33.1%
3 Nanjing UniversityChina 61.829.7%9.4×96 +5.1%
4 Università della Svizzera italianaSwitzerland 61.733.8%33.3×30 +16.0%
5 Gran Sasso Science InstituteItaly 59.819.2%48.7×14 +565.1%
6 Polytechnique MontréalCanada 58.841.9%12.5×23 -10.1%
7 Carnegie Mellon UniversityUnited States 57.730.4%8.6×46 +49.5%
8 Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indian Institute of Information Technology and ManagementIndia 57.366.3%10.3×8 -17.5%
9 National University of Ireland, MaynoothIreland 55.349.0%5.6×8 +291.1%
10 Mondragon UnibertsitateaSpain 53.819.2%27.8×11 +394.2%

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 Software research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 7% lower than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2014. The fastest-growing topics are Engineering and Information Technology, Software Testing and Debugging Techniques and Software Reliability and Analysis Research.

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. Engineering and Information Technology+80%
  2. Software Testing and Debugging Techniques+44%
  3. Software Reliability and Analysis Research+34%
  4. Spreadsheets and End-User Computing+19%
  5. Model-Driven Software Engineering Techniques-19%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

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

What does Software include?

Software Reliability and…34kSoftware Reliability and Analysis Research: 34k fractional worksSoftware Testing and Deb…32kSoftware Testing and Debugging Techniques: 32k fractional worksModel-Driven Software En…23kModel-Driven Software Engineering Techniques: 23k fractional worksEngineering and Information Technology: 5,274 fractional worksSpreadsheets and End-User Computing: 4,383 fractional works

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