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Topic · Earth-Surface Processes

Building materials and conservation

Building materials and conservation is a research topic within Earth-Surface Processes. Science Explorer counts 25k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the role of fungi and microorganisms in the biogeochemical transformations of rocks, minerals, and metals, with a focus on their impact on cultural heritage conservation. It covers topics such as biodeterioration, bioremediation, microbial diversity, salt crystallization, lime mortars, fungal colonization, and the weathering of rock materials.

  • Geomycology
  • Biodeterioration
  • Bioremediation
  • Cultural Heritage
  • Rock Weathering
  • Microbial Diversity
  • Salt Crystallization
  • Lime Mortars
  • Fungal Colonization
  • Conservation
Research works
25k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+14%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
29% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Building materials and conservation

Which countries lead Building materials and conservation research?

By volume, China and Italy publish the most (1.2k and 760 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.2k works
  2. 2 Italy 760 works
  3. 3 United States 376 works
  4. 4 Spain 344 works
  5. 5 France 333 works
  6. 6 Türkiye 294 works
  7. 7 India 269 works
  8. 8 United Kingdom 212 works
  9. 9 Portugal 186 works
  10. 10 Germany 183 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: 29.0%Italy: 18.2%United States: 9.0%Spain: 8.3%6 others listed: 35.5%29%largest
China1,206 · 29.0%Italy760 · 18.2%United States376 · 9.0%Spain344 · 8.3%6 others listed1,478 · 35.5%

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

Which institutions lead Building materials and conservation research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Building materials and conservation research, followed by National Research Council and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 128 works
  2. 2 National Research CouncilItaly 71 works
  3. 3 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíficasSpain 45 works
  4. 4 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 41 works
  5. 5 University of FlorenceItaly 40 works
  6. 6 Politecnico di MilanoItaly 39 works
  7. 7 University of Naples Federico IIItaly 39 works
  8. 8 Sapienza University of RomeItaly 37 works
  9. 9 University of BolognaItaly 36 works
  10. 10 Czech Technical University in PragueCzechia 34 works

Who are the leading researchers in Building materials and conservation?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Building materials and conservation include Lei Jiang, Markus Antonietti and Noah Fierer.

  1. 1 Lei Jiang China 214k citations
  2. 2 Markus Antonietti Germany 185k citations
  3. 3 Noah Fierer United States 175k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Building materials and conservation?

The most cited paper in Building materials and conservation is "Understanding the relationship between geopolymer composition, microstructure and mechanical properties" (Peter Duxson, John L. Provis, Grant C. Lukey et al., 2005), with 1,800 citations. Next come "Structure of Calcium Silicate Hydrate (C‐S‐H): Near‐, Mid‐, and Far‐Infrared Spectroscopy" (1,655) and "Microbial carbonate precipitation in construction materials: A review" (1,469).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Understanding the relationship between geopolymer composition, microstructure and mechanical properties Peter Duxson, John L. Provis, Grant C. Lukey et al. · Colloids and Surfaces A Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects 19 Aug 2005 1,800
2 Structure of Calcium Silicate Hydrate (C‐S‐H): Near‐, Mid‐, and Far‐Infrared Spectroscopy Ping Yu, R. James Kirkpatrick, Brent T. Poe et al. · Journal of the American Ceramic Society Mar 1999 1,655
3 Microbial carbonate precipitation in construction materials: A review Willem De Muynck, Nele De Belie, Willy Verstraete · Ecological Engineering 14 Jun 2009 1,469
4 Cleaning and Shaping the Root Canal Herbert Schilder · Dental Clinics of North America Apr 1974 1,451
5 Cement substitution by a combination of metakaolin and limestone Mathieu Antoni, J.E. Rossen, Fernando Martirena et al. · Cement and Concrete Research Open access 2 Nov 2012 1,401
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Building materials and conservation research done?

The largest centres of Building materials and conservation research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Rome (Italy), Paris (France) and Xi'an (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Rende and Braga.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 223 works
  2. 2 RomeItaly 125 works
  3. 3 ParisFrance 106 works
  4. 4 Xi'anChina 91 works
  5. 5 ShanghaiChina 82 works
  6. 6 MadridSpain 80 works
  7. 7 NanjingChina 78 works
  8. 8 PragueCzechia 72 works
  9. 9 MilanItaly 72 works
  10. 10 LisbonPortugal 71 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. RendeIT · 20.9 works15×
  2. BragaPT · 31.2 works12×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Building materials and conservation than the world average.

See Building materials and conservation on the map

Where is the best place to study Building materials and conservation?

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, University of Naples Federico II and Southeast 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%20%40%mean 17.37%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Hong Kong Polytechni…Southeast UniversityUniversity of Naples…University of Florence
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.

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
1Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 68.643.3%2.1×10 +128.9%
2University of Naples Federico IIItaly 63.910.7%9.5×39 +30.2%
3Southeast UniversityChina 62.322.4%3.2×27 +40.7%
4University of FlorenceItaly 62.18.3%11.7×40 +14.5%
5University of MinhoPortugal 61.317.4%15.5×31 -2.5%
6Universidad de GranadaSpain 60.714.6%9.6×31 +9.8%
7University of BolognaItaly 60.211.1%7.6×36 +11.2%
8Tongji UniversityChina 59.820.8%3.4×30 +123.0%
9Politecnico di MilanoItaly 56.610.6%9.6×40 -14.9%
10Xi'an University of Architecture and TechnologyChina 54.814.5%12.0×21 +58.0%

Universities only. The score blends 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 Building materials and conservation, country by country

Is Building materials and conservation research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 14% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Building materials and conservation.

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 Building materials and conservation as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.026% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Building materials and conservation0.027% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Building materials and conservation 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%Building materials and conservation9.9% 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.

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