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Topic · Philosophy

Rhetoric and Communication Studies

Rhetoric and Communication Studies is a research topic within Philosophy. Science Explorer counts 14k 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 intersection of rhetoric, democracy, and public discourse, with a focus on activism, visual argumentation, race and identity, environmental communication, cultural memory, political rhetoric, and social justice. The papers examine how language and communication shape public opinion, influence political narratives, and contribute to the construction of collective memory in democratic societies.

  • Rhetoric
  • Democracy
  • Public Discourse
  • Activism
  • Visual Argumentation
  • Race and Identity
  • Environmental Communication
  • Cultural Memory
  • Political Rhetoric
  • Social Justice
Research works
14k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.4k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-7%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
59% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Rhetoric and Communication Studies

Which countries lead Rhetoric and Communication Studies research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (948 and 171 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 948 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 171 works
  3. 3 China 117 works
  4. 4 Canada 75 works
  5. 5 Australia 61 works
  6. 6 Germany 56 works
  7. 7 Indonesia 55 works
  8. 8 Denmark 45 works
  9. 9 Norway 34 works
  10. 10 Netherlands 34 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: 59.3%United Kingdom: 10.7%China: 7.3%Canada: 4.7%6 others listed: 17.9%59%largest
United States948 · 59.3%United Kingdom171 · 10.7%China117 · 7.3%Canada75 · 4.7%6 others listed286 · 17.9%

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

Which institutions lead Rhetoric and Communication Studies research?

By volume in 2022-now, The University of Texas at Austin publishes the most Rhetoric and Communication Studies research, followed by University of Copenhagen and Pennsylvania State University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 The University of Texas at AustinUnited States 22 works
  2. 2 University of CopenhagenDenmark 20 works
  3. 3 Pennsylvania State UniversityUnited States 18 works
  4. 4 Georgia State UniversityUnited States 13 works
  5. 5 University of ChicagoUnited States 11 works
  6. 6 University of Maryland, College ParkUnited States 11 works
  7. 7 University of BergenNorway 11 works
  8. 8 University of GeorgiaUnited States 10 works
  9. 9 City University of New YorkUnited States 10 works
  10. 10 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 9 works

Who are the leading researchers in Rhetoric and Communication Studies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Rhetoric and Communication Studies include Michel Foucault, Noam Chomsky and Erving Goffman.

  1. 1 Michel Foucault France 208k citations
  2. 2 Noam Chomsky United States 141k citations
  3. 3 Erving Goffman United States 133k citations
  4. 4 Norman K. Denzin United States 130k 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 Rhetoric and Communication Studies?

The most cited paper in Rhetoric and Communication Studies is "Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A Constructionist Approach" (William A. Gamson, Andre Modigliani, 1989), with 4,990 citations. Next come "Genre as social action" (2,878) and "A manifesto for cyborgs: Science, technology, and socialist feminism in the 1980s" (2,045).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A Constructionist Approach William A. Gamson, Andre Modigliani · American Journal of Sociology Jul 1989 4,990
2 Genre as social action Carolyn R. Miller · Quarterly Journal of Speech May 1984 2,878
3 A manifesto for cyborgs: Science, technology, and socialist feminism in the 1980s Donna Haraway · Cambridge University Press eBooks Book chapter 25 Nov 1994 2,045
4 Framing analysis: An approach to news discourse Zhongdang Pan, Gerald M. Kosicki · Political Communication 1993 1,998
5 Narration as a human communication paradigm: The case of public moral argument Walter R. Fisher · Communication Monographs Mar 1984 1,794
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Rhetoric and Communication Studies research done?

The largest centres of Rhetoric and Communication Studies research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Copenhagen (Denmark), New York (United States) and Austin (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Austin.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 34 works
  2. 2 CopenhagenDenmark 28 works
  3. 3 New YorkUnited States 27 works
  4. 4 AustinUnited States 23 works
  5. 5 ChicagoUnited States 22 works
  6. 6 Washington D.C.United States 20 works
  7. 7 AtlantaUnited States 19 works
  8. 8 State CollegeUnited States 18 works
  9. 9 Los AngelesUnited States 18 works
  10. 10 BeijingChina 16 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. AustinUS · 22.9 works10×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Rhetoric and Communication Studies than the world average.

See Rhetoric and Communication Studies on the map

Where is the best place to study Rhetoric and Communication Studies?

Among universities, judged by research, The University of Texas at Austin, University of Copenhagen and University of Maryland, College Park 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 10.89%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →The University of Te…University of Colora…University of Maryla…University of Copenh…
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
1The University of Texas at AustinUnited States 81.117.8%13.9×22 -19.8%
2University of CopenhagenDenmark 63.99.6%11.2×20 +180.2%
3University of Maryland, College ParkUnited States 61.513.8%9.9×11 +20.8%
4University of Colorado BoulderUnited States 54.214.1%9.9×9 -31.6%
5University of GeorgiaUnited States 47.512.3%12.3×10 +34.8%
6University of BergenNorway 47.39.8%17.8×11 -5.3%
7Georgia State UniversityUnited States 40.86.5%24.4×13 +79.8%
8University of Arkansas at FayettevilleUnited States 38.810.5%19.0×8 -13.6%
9Pennsylvania State UniversityUnited States 34.65.1%8.6×18 -37.6%
10University of the HumanitiesMongolia 34.19.4%152.2×8 +25.8%

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 Rhetoric and Communication Studies, country by country

Is Rhetoric and Communication Studies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 7% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2016.

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 Rhetoric and Communication Studies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0090% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Rhetoric and Communication Studies0.0091% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Rhetoric and Communication 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%Rhetoric and Communication Studies10.4% 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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