Space and Planetary Science Research: Who Leads Worldwide

Which countries lead Space and Planetary Science research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, the United Kingdom and China rank highest in Space and Planetary Science. By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (621 and 475 works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

1 United States #1 all time 0.78× excellence · 1.55× journals · 100% breadth 9.4% top 10% · 564 works
2 United Kingdom #2 all time 0.91× excellence · 1.43× journals · 100% breadth 11.5% top 10% · 440 works
3 China #3 all time 1.59× excellence · 1.03× journals · 100% breadth 25.9% top 10% · 202 works
4 France #5 all time 0.96× excellence · 1.25× journals · 100% breadth 4.8% top 10% · 203 works
5 Italy #6 all time 1.18× excellence · 0.67× journals · 100% breadth 12.8% top 10% · 411 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 5 countries ranked in Space and Planetary Science. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Space and Planetary Science

By volume, 2022-now

1 United States 621 works
2 United Kingdom 475 works
3 Italy 452 works
4 China 240 works
5 France 215 works
6 Germany 203 works
7 Spain 173 works
8 Türkiye 172 works
9 Poland 159 works
10 Russia 148 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 States621 · 21.7%United Kingdom475 · 16.6%Italy452 · 15.8%China240 · 8.4%6 others listed1,071 · 37.4%

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

Which institutions lead Space and Planetary Science research?

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France) ranks first in Space and Planetary Science on research quality in 2022-now, followed by .

By research quality, 2022-now

1 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France · Paris · #1 all time 4.8% top 10% · 80 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 1 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Space and Planetary Science.

Top 100 Space and Planetary Science institutions

By volume, 2022-now

1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 83 works
2 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 45 works
3 Department of ArchaeologySri Lanka 38 works
4 Sapienza University of RomeItaly 36 works
5 Israel Antiquities AuthorityIsrael 36 works
6 National Research CouncilItaly 31 works
7 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 24 works
8 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 23 works
9 University of FlorenceItaly 22 works
10 University College LondonUnited Kingdom 22 works

Who are the leading researchers in Space and Planetary Science?

Counting only their work in Space and Planetary Science, Rosa Lasaponara, Nicola Masini and Athos Agapiou have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

1 Rosa Lasaponara Italy · #672,518 worldwide overall 19.2 of 53 papers here in the top 10%
2 Nicola Masini Italy · #647,462 worldwide overall 15.5 of 52 papers here in the top 10%
3 Athos Agapiou Cyprus · #693,662 worldwide overall 12.7 of 43 papers here in the top 10%
4 Lynn M. Meskell United States · #28,859 worldwide overall 6.7 of 12 papers here in the top 10%
5 Juan Carlos Fernández-Diaz United States · #192,887 worldwide overall 6.3 of 10 papers here in the top 10%
6 Jesse Casana United States · #135,054 worldwide overall 6.3 of 13 papers here in the top 10%
7 Fabio Remondino Italy · #680,186 worldwide overall 9.7 of 19 papers here in the top 10%
8 Dylan S. Davis United States · #177,402 worldwide overall 5.3 of 8 papers here in the top 10%
9 Damian H. Evans France · #277,262 worldwide overall 5.5 of 10 papers here in the top 10%
10 Bruce G. Trigger Canada · #87,199 worldwide overall 5.3 of 9 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Space and Planetary Science alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 61,285 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 Space and Planetary Science researchers

What are the most cited papers in Space and Planetary Science?

The most cited paper in Space and Planetary Science is "A History of Archaeological Thought. By Bruce G. Trigger." (David B. Small, 1992), with 1,297 citations. Next come "TECHNOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF LOW‐FIRED TERRACOTTA STATUES FROM AYIA IRINI, KEA" (1,259) and "An introduction to optical dating" (1,214).

Most cited papers
#	Paper	Released	Citations
1	A History of Archaeological Thought. By Bruce G. Trigger. David B. Small · American Journal of Archaeology	1992	1,297
2	TECHNOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF LOW‐FIRED TERRACOTTA STATUES FROM AYIA IRINI, KEA Yannis Maniatis, A.A. Katsanos, Miriam Ervin Caskey · Archaeometry	Aug 1982	1,259
3	An introduction to optical dating James K. Feathers · Geoarchaeology	2000	1,214
4	Dissonant heritage: The management of the past as a resource in conflict C. Michael Hall · Annals of Tourism Research	1997	1,050
5	The prehistoric and preindustrial deforestation of Europe Jed Oliver Kaplan, Kristen Marie Krumhardt, Niklaus E. Zimmermann · Quaternary Science Reviews Open access	25 Oct 2009	993

All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Space and Planetary Science research done?

The largest centres of Space and Planetary Science research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Rome (Italy), Paris (France) and Beijing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Colombo, Jerusalem and Venice.

Largest cities, 2022-now

1 LondonUnited Kingdom 114 works
2 RomeItaly 95 works
3 ParisFrance 79 works
4 BeijingChina 69 works
5 WarsawPoland 54 works
6 MoscowRussia 52 works
7 AthensGreece 50 works
8 JerusalemIsrael 48 works
9 BudapestHungary 47 works
10 ColomboSri Lanka 43 works

Where it is the local speciality

ColomboLK · 42.6 works18×
JerusalemIL · 47.5 works15×
VeniceIT · 20.3 works14×

← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Space and Planetary Science on the map

Space and Planetary Science research by country

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

France

Where is the best place to study Space and Planetary Science?

Among universities, judged by research, University College London, Cyprus University of Technology and Sapienza University of Rome score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

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%

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.

#	University	Score	Rank in field (all time)	Top 10%	Specialisation	Works	Growth
1	University College LondonUnited Kingdom	76.9	- (#2)	15.7%	3.4×	22	-9.4%
2	Cyprus University of TechnologyCyprus	31.6	-	36.3%	44.0×	10	-47.3%
3	Sapienza University of RomeItaly	29.0	-	7.1%	7.6×	36	+52.4%
4	University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom	28.8	- (#3)	10.2%	5.0×	24	+4.1%
5	University of OxfordUnited Kingdom	28.1	-	11.7%	4.1×	24	+1.0%
6	University of FlorenceItaly	26.3	-	9.6%	9.2×	22	+5.0%
7	Aristotle University of ThessalonikiGreece	25.7	-	31.1%	5.3×	10	+4.6%
8	Politecnico di MilanoItaly	24.5	-	17.6%	6.7×	19	-19.5%
9	Politecnico di TorinoItaly	24.3	-	15.3%	8.6×	16	-11.3%
10	University of BolognaItaly	24.0	-	14.6%	6.0×	20	-8.5%
11	Newcastle UniversityUnited Kingdom	22.7	-	10.6%	5.8×	11	+49.5%
12	Queen's University BelfastUnited Kingdom	22.6	-	12.5%	6.3×	8	+89.7%
13	University of NottinghamUnited Kingdom	22.3	-	32.9%	2.8×	9	-26.0%
14	Aarhus UniversityDenmark	22.0	-	4.9%	4.4×	15	+17.2%
15	University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom	22.0	-	12.2%	3.9×	14	+17.4%
16	Durham UniversityUnited Kingdom	21.3	-	7.6%	9.0×	13	-10.9%
17	University of LeicesterUnited Kingdom	20.3	-	12.0%	9.5×	10	-2.5%
18	University of AmsterdamNetherlands	20.0	-	15.3%	3.4×	8	-4.0%
19	University of ViennaAustria	19.9	-	3.4%	5.7×	12	+18.9%
20	Ghent UniversityBelgium	19.6	-	9.0%	2.7×	8	-1.4%
21	University of LiverpoolUnited Kingdom	19.4	-	7.1%	4.4×	10	+36.5%
22	Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany	19.1	-	12.7%	3.0×	10	+56.7%
23	University of TorontoCanada	18.9	-	18.8%	1.4×	12	-7.5%
24	Leiden UniversityNetherlands	18.8	-	10.0%	4.7×	10	-15.4%
25	University of Naples Federico IIItaly	18.7	-	6.4%	4.3×	12	+27.0%
26	University of St AndrewsUnited Kingdom	18.5	-	9.4%	10.2×	9	+11.2%
27	Ca' Foscari University of VeniceItaly	18.4	-	7.7%	12.1×	12	+33.5%
28	University of LjubljanaSlovenia	18.1	-	7.3%	7.1×	12	+3.0%
29	University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli"Italy	17.8	-	9.2%	10.4×	9	+250.0%
30	National Technical University of AthensGreece	17.2	-	7.1%	11.0×	12	+0.6%
31	King's College LondonUnited Kingdom	16.9	-	5.6%	3.3×	12	+67.7%
32	University of TurinItaly	16.9	-	6.9%	4.4×	10	+43.4%
33	University of CopenhagenDenmark	16.7	-	5.4%	2.6×	10	+89.2%
34	University of PisaItaly	16.7	-	7.5%	4.5×	9	+36.7%
35	University of GlasgowUnited Kingdom	16.6	-	17.3%	3.7×	10	-29.5%
36	University of WarsawPoland	15.8	-	2.7%	7.4×	15	+4.5%
37	Universitat de BarcelonaSpain	15.7	-	3.7%	2.8×	9	+22.9%
38	Cairo UniversityEgypt	15.6	-	10.5%	3.1×	9	+117.8%
39	Jagiellonian UniversityPoland	14.9	-	5.6%	4.4×	12	+36.7%
40	University of HaifaIsrael	14.9	-	2.3%	10.8×	10	+3.2%
41	Université Paris 1 Panthéon-SorbonneFrance	12.5	-	2.3%	13.8×	9	+15.5%

Universities only. The score blends standing (50%), 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 Space and Planetary Science, country by country

Is Space and Planetary Science research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 9% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Archaeological Research and Protection.

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 Space and Planetary Science as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.020% in 2024.

Fractional works of Space and Planetary 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.

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 Space and Planetary Science include?

Archaeological Research and Protection

Share who leads Space and Planetary Science

The leading institutions' badges1Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Image

Which countries lead Space and Planetary Science research?

By research quality, 2022-now

By volume, 2022-now

How concentrated that is

Which institutions lead Space and Planetary Science research?

By research quality, 2022-now

By volume, 2022-now

Who are the leading researchers in Space and Planetary Science?

What are the most cited papers in Space and Planetary Science?

Where is Space and Planetary Science research done?

Largest cities, 2022-now

Where it is the local speciality

Space and Planetary Science research by country

Where is the best place to study Space and Planetary Science?

Is Space and Planetary Science research growing?

Its share of all research

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Which topics inside it are moving

What does Space and Planetary Science include?

Share who leads Space and Planetary Science

Related research

Discussion