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Subfield · Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Soil Science research

Soil Science is a subfield of Agricultural and Biological Sciences. Science Explorer counts 266k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: study of soil as a natural resource on the surface of the earth.

Research works
266k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
27k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
12
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+17%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
27% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Soil Science

What is Soil Science research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Soil Fertility, Microbial Communities, Sustainable Agriculture, Composting, Nitrogen Cycle, Soil Carbon Sequestration. Gaining share since 2011-15: Organic Farming, Plant Nutrition, Composting, Paleosols, Soil Evolution. Losing share: No-till Crop Production, Soil Compaction, Soil Quality, Land Tenure.

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

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 32 words, with their numbers
  1. Soil Fertility37k▲ 1.25×3 topics
  2. Microbial Communities22k◆ 1.03×2 topics
  3. Sustainable Agriculture20k▲ 1.82×2 topics
  4. Composting19k▲ 1.90×2 topics
  5. Nitrogen Cycle17k◆ 0.91×1 topic
  6. Soil Carbon Sequestration17k◆ 0.91×1 topic
  7. Soil Degradation15k▼ 0.66×2 topics
  8. Organic Farming14k▲ 2.3×1 topic
  9. Plant Nutrition14k▲ 2.3×1 topic
  10. Crop Productivity12k◆ 1.00×2 topics
  11. Agricultural Sustainability11k▼ 0.77×1 topic
  12. Soil Erosion11k▼ 0.77×1 topic
  13. Risk Management7,802◆ 1.12×1 topic
  14. Vulnerability7,802◆ 1.12×1 topic
  15. Deficit Irrigation6,648◆ 0.88×1 topic
  16. Water Use Efficiency6,648◆ 0.88×1 topic
  17. Integrated Nutrient Management5,827▲ 1.19×1 topic
  18. Organic Manure5,827▲ 1.19×1 topic
  19. Soil Quality5,579▼ 0.52×2 topics
  20. Desertification5,538▲ 1.48×2 topics
  21. No-till Crop Production4,713▼ 0.50×1 topic
  22. Soil Compaction4,713▼ 0.50×1 topic
  23. Paleosols4,672▲ 1.90×1 topic
  24. Soil Evolution4,672▲ 1.90×1 topic
  25. Maturity Assessment4,347▲ 1.19×1 topic
  26. Organic Waste4,347▲ 1.19×1 topic
  27. Land Tenure3,486▼ 0.58×1 topic
  28. Property Rights3,486▼ 0.58×1 topic
  29. Humic Substances1,347▲ 1.64×1 topic
  30. Shilajit1,347▲ 1.64×1 topic
  31. Conservation Agriculture866▼ 0.68×1 topic
  32. Water Productivity866▼ 0.68×1 topic

Which countries lead Soil Science research?

On research quality in 2022-now, China, the United States and Germany rank highest in Soil Science. By volume, China and Indonesia publish the most (14k and 12k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 China #1 all time 1.43× citation excellence · 1.12× journals · 100% breadth 17.2% top 10% · 12k works
  2. 2 United States #2 all time 0.96× citation excellence · 1.58× journals · 100% breadth 10.8% top 10% · 4.4k works
  3. 3 Germany #3 all time 1.30× citation excellence · 1.39× journals · 100% breadth 14.7% top 10% · 975 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom #4 all time 1.16× citation excellence · 1.45× journals · 100% breadth 12.8% top 10% · 851 works
  5. 5 Australia #5 all time 1.29× citation excellence · 1.20× journals · 100% breadth 14.4% top 10% · 785 works
  6. 6 France #7 all time 1.03× citation excellence · 1.26× journals · 100% breadth 9.2% top 10% · 850 works
  7. 7 Netherlands #8 all time 1.52× citation excellence · 1.45× journals · 100% breadth 17.1% top 10% · 309 works
  8. 8 Switzerland #9 all time 1.43× citation excellence · 1.87× journals · 100% breadth 16.7% top 10% · 213 works
  9. 9 Spain #6 all time 1.19× citation excellence · 1.00× journals · 100% breadth 10.9% top 10% · 764 works
  10. 10 India #11 all time 0.60× citation excellence · 0.43× journals · 100% breadth 6.3% top 10% · 7.7k 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 42 countries ranked in Soil Science. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Soil Science

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 14k works
  2. 2 Indonesia 12k works
  3. 3 India 8.9k works
  4. 4 United States 5.1k works
  5. 5 Brazil 3.9k works
  6. 6 Russia 2.6k works
  7. 7 Germany 1.2k works
  8. 8 Nigeria 1.2k works
  9. 9 Ethiopia 1k works
  10. 10 United Kingdom 996 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: 27.3%Indonesia: 24.1%India: 17.4%United States: 9.9%6 others listed: 21.4%27%largest
China14k · 27.3%Indonesia12k · 24.1%India8,896 · 17.4%United States5,052 · 9.9%6 others listed11k · 21.4%

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

Which institutions lead Soil Science research?

Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) ranks first in Soil Science on research quality in 2022-now, followed by University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Northwest A&F University.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #1 all time 18.6% top 10% · 1.5k works
  2. 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #2 all time 20.8% top 10% · 272 works
  3. 3 Northwest A&F University China · Yangling · #3 all time 25.9% top 10% · 356 works
  4. 4 Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences China · Beijing · #7 all time 19.1% top 10% · 767 works
  5. 5 China Agricultural University China · Beijing · #4 all time 23.1% top 10% · 290 works
  6. 6 Beijing Normal University China · Beijing · #11 all time 22.9% top 10% · 137 works
  7. 7 Zhejiang University China · Hangzhou · #16 all time 26.9% top 10% · 108 works
  8. 8 Cornell University United States · Ithaca · #8 all time 16.1% top 10% · 62 works
  9. 9 Lanzhou University China · Lanzhou · #30 all time 16.3% top 10% · 126 works
  10. 10 Wageningen University & Research Netherlands · Wageningen · #6 all time 17.9% top 10% · 107 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 144 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Soil Science.

Top 100 Soil Science institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 1.7k works
  2. 2 Indian Council of Agricultural ResearchIndia 1k works
  3. 3 Chinese Academy of Agricultural SciencesChina 920 works
  4. 4 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 879 works
  5. 5 Northwest A&F UniversityChina 394 works
  6. 6 University of MataramIndonesia 352 works
  7. 7 China Agricultural UniversityChina 344 works
  8. 8 IPB UniversityIndonesia 327 works
  9. 9 Ministry of Agriculture and Rural AffairsChina 323 works
  10. 10 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 319 works

Who are the leading researchers in Soil Science?

Counting only their work in Soil Science, Yakov V. Kuzyakov, Rattan Lal and Johan Six have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Yakov V. Kuzyakov Germany · #1,822 worldwide overall 158.2 of 342 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Rattan Lal United States · #7,095 worldwide overall 117.1 of 319 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Johan Six Switzerland · #6,905 worldwide overall 71.4 of 160 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Josep Peñuelas Spain · #1,488 worldwide overall 64.0 of 141 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Yiqi Luo United States · #2,208 worldwide overall 58.9 of 107 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Pete Smith United Kingdom · #10,189 worldwide overall 59.9 of 149 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Fusuo S. Zhang China · #2,111 worldwide overall 53.3 of 112 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Zimin Wei China · #22,147 worldwide overall 50.1 of 86 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Manuel Delgado‐Baquerizo Spain · #190 worldwide overall 49.6 of 83 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Davey L. Jones United Kingdom · #21,896 worldwide overall 55.9 of 147 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Soil Science alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 569,027 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 Soil Science researchers

What are the most cited papers in Soil Science?

The most cited paper in Soil Science is "An extraction method for measuring soil microbial biomass C" (Eric D. Vance, Philip Charles Brookes, David Stewart Jenkinson, 1987), with 13,020 citations. Next come "Improved procedures for clearing roots and staining parasitic and vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi for rapid assessment of infection" (8,570) and "Soil Carbon Sequestration Impacts on Global Climate Change and Food Security" (8,396).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 An extraction method for measuring soil microbial biomass C Eric D. Vance, Philip Charles Brookes, David Stewart Jenkinson · Soil Biology and Biochemistry 1987 13,020
2 Improved procedures for clearing roots and staining parasitic and vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi for rapid assessment of infection Jean M. Phillips, David S. Hayman · Transactions of the British Mycological Society Aug 1970 8,570
3 Soil Carbon Sequestration Impacts on Global Climate Change and Food Security Rattan Lal · Science 10 Jun 2004 8,396
4 Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices David Tilman, Kenneth G. Cassman, Pamela A. Matson et al. · Nature Aug 2002 7,955
5 Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change Eric A. Davidson, Ivan August Janssens · Nature Open access Mar 2006 7,089
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Soil Science research done?

The largest centres of Soil Science research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Moscow (Russia) and Jakarta (Indonesia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Yangling, Jobner and Rāhuri.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 3.7k works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 829 works
  3. 3 MoscowRussia 752 works
  4. 4 JakartaIndonesia 741 works
  5. 5 New DelhiIndia 646 works
  6. 6 MedanIndonesia 582 works
  7. 7 MalangIndonesia 533 works
  8. 8 SurabayaIndonesia 483 works
  9. 9 BandungIndonesia 479 works
  10. 10 São PauloBrazil 469 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. YanglingCN · 190.2 works61×
  2. JobnerIN · 37.9 works38×
  3. RāhuriIN · 68.4 works31×
  4. PālanpurIN · 36.5 works29×
  5. HarpendenGB · 38.7 works26×
  6. SabaurIN · 49.7 works25×
  7. KrishnanagarIN · 75.9 works24×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Soil Science on the map

Soil Science research by country

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

Where is the best place to study Soil Science?

Among universities, judged by research, Northwest A&F University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Agricultural University 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.

0%10%20%30%mean 20.78%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Northwest A&F Univer…China Agricultural U…Beijing Normal Unive…University of Chines…
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.

Standingthis field's institution ranking, three quarters all time and a quarter 2022-now
50%
Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
20%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
5%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
15%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
5%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
5%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreRank in field (all time)Top 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Northwest A&F UniversityChina 89.9#3 (#3)25.1%16.4×394 +23.1%
2University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 86.3#2 (#2)19.5%3.1×318 +19.5%
3China Agricultural UniversityChina 83.1#5 (#4)22.1%10.0×344 +34.1%
4Beijing Normal UniversityChina 69.5#6 (#11)21.9%3.2×158 +16.9%
5Wageningen University & ResearchNetherlands 68.2#10 (#6)17.4%5.6×126 -13.2%
6Zhejiang UniversityChina 64.8#7 (#16)25.1%0.7×124 +30.3%
7Nanjing Agricultural UniversityChina 59.8#16 (#29)21.2%7.2×171 +31.6%
8Cornell UniversityUnited States 58.3#8 (#8)15.1%0.9×72 -22.8%
9Peking UniversityChina 57.5#13 (#24)19.9%0.6×80 +21.8%
10Huazhong Agricultural UniversityChina 56.3#21 (#38)20.5%6.1×127 +19.9%

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 Soil Science, country by country

Is Soil Science research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 17% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Humic Substances and Bio-Organic Studies, Composting and Vermicomposting Techniques and Agricultural risk and resilience.

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 Soil Science as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.31% in 2024.

still counting0.20%0.40%Soil Science0.29% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Soil Science 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%Soil Science10.4% 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.

  1. Humic Substances and Bio-Organic Studies+72%
  2. Composting and Vermicomposting Techniques+49%
  3. Agricultural risk and resilience+40%
  4. Plant Growth and Agriculture Techniques+36%
  5. Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics+30%
  6. Agricultural Science and Fertilization+20%
  7. Soil Science and Environmental Management-13%
  8. Soil Management and Crop Yield-35%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2018-21 to 2022-25. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Soil Science include?

Soil Carbon and Nitrogen…61kSoil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics: 61k fractional worksSoil erosion and sediment transport: 41k fractional worksPlant Growth and Agriculture Techniques: 28k fractional worksIrrigation Practices and Water Management: 25k fractional worksSoil Management and Crop Yield: 24k fractional worksAgricultural risk and resilience: 22k fractional worksAgricultural Science and…18kAgricultural Science and Fertilization: 18k fractional worksLand Rights and Reforms: 16k fractional worksComposting and Vermicomposting Techniques: 13k fractional worksSoil and Environmental Studies: 11k fractional worksHumic Substances and Bio-Organic Studies: 3,799 fractional worksSoil Science and Environmental Management: 3,713 fractional works

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

Share who leads Soil Science

Who leads Soil Science, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Soil Science, for a post or a slide.

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1200 × 630 PNG, sized for social posts, drawn from the latest snapshot.

The leading institutions' badges6Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

Discussion

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