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Topic · Classics

Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies

Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies is a research topic within Classics. Science Explorer counts 13k research works in it since 1950. 10.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers encompasses a wide range of topics related to medieval and early modern studies, including medieval literature, cultural history, religious practices, narrative fiction, humanities, literary discourse, social dynamics, intellectual history, and historical narratives.

  • Medieval Literature
  • Cultural History
  • Religious Practices
  • Narrative Fiction
  • Humanities
  • Literary Discourse
  • Middle Ages
  • Historical Narratives
  • Social Dynamics
  • Intellectual History
Research works
13k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.4k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+1%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Germany
48% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies

Which countries lead Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies research?

By volume, Germany and the United States publish the most (1k and 335 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Germany 1k works
  2. 2 United States 335 works
  3. 3 Switzerland 138 works
  4. 4 France 136 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 129 works
  6. 6 Italy 105 works
  7. 7 Austria 97 works
  8. 8 Spain 80 works
  9. 9 Poland 62 works
  10. 10 Netherlands 39 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.

Germany: 47.9%United States: 15.5%Switzerland: 6.4%France: 6.3%6 others listed: 23.8%48%largest
Germany1,032 · 47.9%United States335 · 15.5%Switzerland138 · 6.4%France136 · 6.3%6 others listed513 · 23.8%

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

Which institutions lead Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies research?

By volume in 2022-now, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München publishes the most Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and University of Tübingen.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 40 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 36 works
  3. 3 University of TübingenGermany 32 works
  4. 4 University of CologneGermany 27 works
  5. 5 Freie Universität BerlinGermany 26 works
  6. 6 University of ViennaAustria 24 works
  7. 7 University of GöttingenGermany 24 works
  8. 8 University of ZurichSwitzerland 24 works
  9. 9 Universität HamburgGermany 24 works
  10. 10 University of MünsterGermany 23 works

Who are the leading researchers in Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies include Wolfgang K. Huber, Stefan Schreiber and Paul Elliott.

  1. 1 Wolfgang K. Huber Germany 239k citations
  2. 2 Stefan Schreiber Germany 163k citations
  3. 3 Paul Elliott United Kingdom 154k citations
  4. 4 O. Schneider Switzerland 141k 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 Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies?

The most cited paper in Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies is "The Beast Within: Animals in the Middle Ages" (Joyce E. Salisbury, 1994), with 353 citations. Next come "Varieties and Consequences of Medieval Literacy and Illiteracy" (323) and "β-Catenin stabilization dysregulates mesenchymal cell proliferation, motility, and invasiveness and causes aggressive fibromatosis and hyperplastic cutaneous wounds" (314).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The Beast Within: Animals in the Middle Ages Joyce E. Salisbury 5 May 1994 353
2 Varieties and Consequences of Medieval Literacy and Illiteracy Franz H. Bäuml · Speculum Apr 1980 323
3 β-Catenin stabilization dysregulates mesenchymal cell proliferation, motility, and invasiveness and causes aggressive fibromatosis and hyperplastic cutaneous wounds Sophia S. Cheon, Alexander Y. L. Cheah, Stefanie Turley et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Open access 30 Apr 2002 314
4 The Concept of ‘Christus Medicus' in St. Augustine Rudolph Arbesmann · Traditio 1954 245
5 The "Crisis of Cenobitism" Reconsidered: Benedictine Monasticism in the Years 1050-1150 John Van Engen · Speculum Apr 1986 201
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies research done?

The largest centres of Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies research in 2022-now are Berlin (Germany), Munich (Germany), Vienna (Austria) and Cologne (Germany). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Venice.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BerlinGermany 83 works
  2. 2 MunichGermany 66 works
  3. 3 ViennaAustria 51 works
  4. 4 CologneGermany 46 works
  5. 5 ZurichSwitzerland 45 works
  6. 6 HamburgGermany 41 works
  7. 7 ParisFrance 39 works
  8. 8 TübingenGermany 33 works
  9. 9 Frankfurt am MainGermany 33 works
  10. 10 MünsterGermany 29 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. VeniceIT · 22.3 works28×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies than the world average.

See Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies on the map

Where is the best place to study Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Arizona, University of Tübingen and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München score highest, combining citation 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 14.96%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of ArizonaUniversity of TübingenLudwig-Maximilians-U…University of Göttin…
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.

Citation 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
1University of ArizonaUnited States 74.938.9%12.7×18 +11.0%
2University of TübingenGermany 67.915.7%33.9×32 +14.5%
3Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 64.711.2%20.9×40 -5.0%
4University of GöttingenGermany 59.910.1%30.6×24 +37.3%
5University of BonnGermany 59.811.6%22.6×23 +27.0%
6Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu KielGermany 59.714.1%30.9×20 +32.2%
7University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 59.511.4%7.0×22 +84.3%
8University of MünsterGermany 59.414.6%24.5×23 +14.2%
9Universität HamburgGermany 55.610.7%14.7×24 +55.1%
10Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinGermany 55.611.3%26.3×21 +17.6%

Universities only. The score blends citation 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 Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies, country by country

Is Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 1% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies.

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 Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0092% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies0.0092% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies 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%Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies9.3% 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

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