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Topic · Developmental and Educational Psychology

Reading and Literacy Development

Reading and Literacy Development is a research topic within Developmental and Educational Psychology. Science Explorer counts 39k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers covers a wide range of topics related to the development of reading skills, dyslexia, and literacy instruction. It includes research on visual word recognition, language development, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and the neurological basis of reading. The cluster also explores interventions for children with reading difficulties and the impact of vocabulary development on reading ability.

  • Reading Acquisition
  • Dyslexia
  • Visual Word Recognition
  • Language Development
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Phonological Awareness
  • Literacy Instruction
  • Neurological Basis of Reading
  • Vocabulary Development
  • Orthographic Processing
Research works
39k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.9k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-3%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
43% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Reading and Literacy Development

Which countries lead Reading and Literacy Development research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.7k and 592 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.7k works
  2. 2 China 592 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 333 works
  4. 4 Germany 238 works
  5. 5 Canada 222 works
  6. 6 Türkiye 213 works
  7. 7 France 190 works
  8. 8 Spain 184 works
  9. 9 Indonesia 180 works
  10. 10 Italy 157 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: 42.6%China: 14.7%United Kingdom: 8.3%Germany: 5.9%6 others listed: 28.5%43%largest
United States1,711 · 42.6%China592 · 14.7%United Kingdom333 · 8.3%Germany238 · 5.9%6 others listed1,146 · 28.5%

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

Which institutions lead Reading and Literacy Development research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Reading and Literacy Development research, followed by Florida State University and University of Haifa.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 75 works
  2. 2 Florida State UniversityUnited States 37 works
  3. 3 University of HaifaIsrael 35 works
  4. 4 Beijing Normal UniversityChina 32 works
  5. 5 Education University of Hong KongChina 31 works
  6. 6 The University of Texas at AustinUnited States 31 works
  7. 7 Radboud University NijmegenNetherlands 31 works
  8. 8 Georgia State UniversityUnited States 29 works
  9. 9 Max Planck SocietyGermany 28 works
  10. 10 University of TorontoCanada 27 works

Who are the leading researchers in Reading and Literacy Development?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Reading and Literacy Development include George Davey Smith, Daniel J. Kahneman and Karl John Friston.

  1. 1 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  2. 2 Daniel J. Kahneman United States 395k citations
  3. 3 Karl John Friston United Kingdom 310k citations
  4. 4 Dan J. Stein South Africa 306k citations
  5. 5 Lorenzo Monasta Italy 235k citations
  6. 6 Nicholas G. Martin Australia 228k citations
  7. 7 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  8. 8 Luca Ronfani Italy 204k citations
  9. 9 Bruce Leonard Miller United States 196k citations
  10. 10 Terrie E. Moffitt United Kingdom 195k 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 Reading and Literacy Development?

The most cited paper in Reading and Literacy Development is "Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research." (Keith Rayner, 1998), with 7,711 citations. Next come "The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity" (6,947) and "Individual differences in working memory and reading" (6,400).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research. Keith Rayner · Psychological Bulletin Nov 1998 7,711
2 The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity Nelson Cowan · Behavioral and Brain Sciences Open access Feb 2001 6,947
3 Individual differences in working memory and reading Meredyth Daneman, Patricia A. Carpenter · Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior Aug 1980 6,400
4 Working Memory Alan Baddeley · Science 31 Jan 1992 5,275
5 Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individual Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy Keith E. Stanovich · Reading Research Quarterly 1986 5,229
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Reading and Literacy Development research done?

The largest centres of Reading and Literacy Development research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Paris (France), New York (United States) and London (United Kingdom). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Tai Po, Tallahassee and Nijmegen.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 106 works
  2. 2 ParisFrance 66 works
  3. 3 New YorkUnited States 59 works
  4. 4 LondonUnited Kingdom 57 works
  5. 5 Hong KongChina 57 works
  6. 6 AnkaraTürkiye 52 works
  7. 7 ShanghaiChina 49 works
  8. 8 HaifaIsrael 47 works
  9. 9 TokyoJapan 45 works
  10. 10 NijmegenNetherlands 45 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Tai PoCN · 32.3 works33×
  2. TallahasseeUS · 38.5 works14×
  3. NijmegenNL · 44.9 works11×
  4. HaifaIL · 47.5 works11×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Reading and Literacy Development than the world average.

See Reading and Literacy Development on the map

Where is the best place to study Reading and Literacy Development?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Cambridge, University of California, Irvine and Education University of Hong Kong 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 18.03%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Califo…Chinese University o…University of Cambri…Education University…
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
1University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 72.815.7%3.7×25 +25.3%
2University of California, IrvineUnited States 71.733.5%6.1×21 -14.6%
3Education University of Hong KongChina 69.314.9%39.4×31 +14.1%
4Chinese University of Hong KongChina 68.216.5%6.5×26 +9.2%
5University of OsloNorway 66.621.1%6.3×22 +0.6%
6Bar-Ilan UniversityIsrael 66.620.7%14.4×22 +14.9%
7University of HaifaIsrael 65.217.5%28.4×35 -1.3%
8Beijing Normal UniversityChina 63.59.6%7.3×32 +18.5%
9Radboud University NijmegenNetherlands 62.113.8%9.2×31 -28.0%
10The University of Texas at AustinUnited States 61.817.0%6.7×31 -16.0%

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 Reading and Literacy Development, country by country

Is Reading and Literacy Development research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 3% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025.

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 Reading and Literacy Development as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.024% in 2024.

still counting0.025%0.050%0.075%Reading and Literacy Development0.026% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Reading and Literacy Development 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%Reading and Literacy Development10.0% 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.

Questions people ask

Who researches reading and literacy?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Reading and Literacy Development research, followed by Florida State University and University of Haifa. By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.7k and 592 works in 2022-now).

All 1,273 questions in the Question Catalogue

Discussion

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