Science Explorer Back to mapMap
Discussion
Topic · Water Science and Technology

Fecal contamination and water quality

Fecal contamination and water quality is a research topic within Water Science and Technology. Science Explorer counts 10k research works in it since 1951. 10.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on waterborne disease outbreaks, fecal contamination, microbial source tracking, colloid filtration theory, transport of bacterial pathogens, indicator organisms, and public health protection related to water quality. It covers a wide range of topics including the impact of extreme weather events on waterborne diseases, detection and quantification of fecal pollution, survival and transport of pathogens in various environments, and the significance of microbial indicators for assessing recreational water quality.

  • Waterborne Disease
  • Pathogen Transport
  • Fecal Contamination
  • Microbial Source Tracking
  • Colloid Filtration Theory
  • Bacterial Pathogens
  • Indicator Organisms
  • Public Health Protection
  • Groundwater Pollution
  • Recreational Water Quality
Research works
10k
fractional, since 1951
In the world top 10%
1.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+20%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
31% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Fecal contamination and water quality

Which countries lead Fecal contamination and water quality research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (543 and 412 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 543 works
  2. 2 China 412 works
  3. 3 India 179 works
  4. 4 Nigeria 124 works
  5. 5 Brazil 115 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 104 works
  7. 7 Canada 80 works
  8. 8 France 75 works
  9. 9 Germany 70 works
  10. 10 Australia 69 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 States: 30.6%China: 23.3%India: 10.1%Nigeria: 7.0%6 others listed: 29.0%31%largest
United States543 · 30.6%China412 · 23.3%India179 · 10.1%Nigeria124 · 7.0%6 others listed514 · 29.0%

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

Which institutions lead Fecal contamination and water quality research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Fecal contamination and water quality research, followed by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 35 works
  2. 2 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 24 works
  3. 3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 22 works
  4. 4 Tongji UniversityChina 12 works
  5. 5 Johnson County Community CollegeUnited States 11 works
  6. 6 United States Department of AgricultureUnited States 11 works
  7. 7 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 10 works
  8. 8 Hohai UniversityChina 10 works
  9. 9 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 8 works
  10. 10 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíficasSpain 7 works

Who are the leading researchers in Fecal contamination and water quality?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Fecal contamination and water quality include Rob Knight, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta and Reza Malekzadeh.

  1. 1 Rob Knight United States 468k citations
  2. 2 Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta Pakistan 371k citations
  3. 3 Reza Malekzadeh Iran 278k citations
  4. 4 Yousef Saleh Khader Jordan 274k 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 Fecal contamination and water quality?

The most cited paper in Fecal contamination and water quality is "Comprehensive Evaluation of Antibiotics Emission and Fate in the River Basins of China: Source Analysis, Multimedia Modeling, and Linkage to Bacterial Resistance" (Qian-Qian Zhang, Guang‐Guo Ying, Chang‐Gui Pan et al., 2015), with 3,925 citations. Next come "Reagent and laboratory contamination can critically impact sequence-based microbiome analyses" (3,660) and "Bacterial Biofilms in Nature and Disease" (3,114).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Comprehensive Evaluation of Antibiotics Emission and Fate in the River Basins of China: Source Analysis, Multimedia Modeling, and Linkage to Bacterial Resistance Qian-Qian Zhang, Guang‐Guo Ying, Chang‐Gui Pan et al. · Environmental Science & Technology 11 May 2015 3,925
2 Reagent and laboratory contamination can critically impact sequence-based microbiome analyses Susannah J. Salter, Michael J. Cox, Elena M. Turek et al. · BMC Biology Open access 11 Nov 2014 3,660
3 Bacterial Biofilms in Nature and Disease J. W. Costerton, K.-J. Cheng, Gill G. Geesey et al. · Annual Review of Microbiology Oct 1987 3,114
4 Global Water Pollution and Human Health René P. Schwarzenbach, Thomas W. Egli, Thomas B. Hofstetter et al. · Annual Review of Environment and Resources ReviewOpen access 22 Oct 2010 2,088
5 Surveillance for waterborne-disease outbreaks--United States, 1993-1994. Michael H. Kramer, Barbara L. Herwaldt, Gunther F. Craun et al. · PubMed 12 Apr 1996 2,055
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Fecal contamination and water quality research done?

The largest centres of Fecal contamination and water quality research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Chapel Hill (United States) and Guangzhou (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Chapel Hill.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 93 works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 35 works
  3. 3 Chapel HillUnited States 24 works
  4. 4 GuangzhouChina 24 works
  5. 5 LondonUnited Kingdom 23 works
  6. 6 Washington D.C.United States 22 works
  7. 7 ParisFrance 22 works
  8. 8 ShanghaiChina 22 works
  9. 9 AtlantaUnited States 18 works
  10. 10 DhakaBangladesh 18 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Chapel HillUS · 23.7 works4.6×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Fecal contamination and water quality than the world average.

See Fecal contamination and water quality on the map

Where is the best place to study Fecal contamination and water quality?

Among universities, judged by research, Tongji University, Hohai University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 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%10%20%mean 13.4%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Tongji UniversityUniversity of Chines…Hohai UniversityUniversity of North …
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
1Tongji UniversityChina 71.621.7%3.1×12 +98.2%
2Hohai UniversityChina 61.819.2%6.8×10 +137.5%
3University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 57.06.8%5.3×24 -30.6%
4University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 52.119.3%2.0×8 +7.4%
5Johnson County Community CollegeUnited States 28.30.0%4003.4×11 -

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 Fecal contamination and water quality, country by country

Is Fecal contamination and water quality research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 20% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2026. The fastest-growing topics are Fecal contamination and water quality.

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 Fecal contamination and water quality as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0062% in 2024.

still counting0.0050%0.010%0.015%Fecal contamination and water quality0.013% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Fecal contamination and water quality 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%Fecal contamination and water quality10.6% 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.

Discussion

Ask a question or share a note about Fecal contamination and water quality. Posts are plain text and can be reported.