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Topic · Artificial Intelligence

Semantic Web and Ontologies

Semantic Web and Ontologies is a research topic within Artificial Intelligence. Science Explorer counts 72k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the Semantic Web, ontology development, and related technologies such as Linked Data, RDF, OWL, schema matching, SPARQL, and knowledge representation. It covers topics like data integration, description logics, and the use of ontologies for information retrieval and knowledge management.

  • Semantic Web
  • Ontology
  • Linked Data
  • RDF
  • OWL
  • Schema Matching
  • SPARQL
  • Knowledge Representation
  • Data Integration
  • Description Logics
Research works
72k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
7.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-7%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
22% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Semantic Web and Ontologies

Which countries lead Semantic Web and Ontologies research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.2k and 1.1k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.2k works
  2. 2 China 1.1k works
  3. 3 Germany 781 works
  4. 4 France 453 works
  5. 5 Italy 412 works
  6. 6 India 368 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 314 works
  8. 8 Brazil 207 works
  9. 9 Spain 180 works
  10. 10 Russia 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: 22.4%China: 22.2%Germany: 15.1%France: 8.8%6 others listed: 31.6%22%largest
United States1,159 · 22.4%China1,148 · 22.2%Germany781 · 15.1%France453 · 8.8%6 others listed1,639 · 31.6%

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

Which institutions lead Semantic Web and Ontologies research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Semantic Web and Ontologies research, followed by Leibniz Association and Chinese Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 127 works
  2. 2 Leibniz AssociationGermany 52 works
  3. 3 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 49 works
  4. 4 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 42 works
  5. 5 RWTH Aachen UniversityGermany 41 works
  6. 6 Fraunhofer-GesellschaftGermany 39 works
  7. 7 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 39 works
  8. 8 National Research CouncilItaly 38 works
  9. 9 TU WienAustria 33 works
  10. 10 Technische Universität DresdenGermany 31 works

Who are the leading researchers in Semantic Web and Ontologies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Semantic Web and Ontologies include Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey E. Hinton and Peer Bork.

  1. 1 Yoshua Bengio Canada 476k citations
  2. 2 Geoffrey E. Hinton Canada 454k citations
  3. 3 Peer Bork Germany 396k citations
  4. 4 Xiangyu Zhang 327k citations
  5. 5 Dan J. Stein South Africa 306k citations
  6. 6 Chris Sander United States 276k citations
  7. 7 Mark Gerstein United States 250k citations
  8. 8 James Thomas United Kingdom 242k 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 Semantic Web and Ontologies?

The most cited paper in Semantic Web and Ontologies is "Research electronic data capture (REDCap)—A metadata-driven methodology and workflow process for providing translational research informatics support" (Paul A. Harris, ROBERT J. TAYLOR, Robert J. Thielke et al., 2008), with 53,362 citations. Next come "A translation approach to portable ontology specifications" (12,728) and "I.—COMPUTING MACHINERY AND INTELLIGENCE" (10,076).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Research electronic data capture (REDCap)—A metadata-driven methodology and workflow process for providing translational research informatics support Paul A. Harris, ROBERT J. TAYLOR, Robert J. Thielke et al. · Journal of Biomedical Informatics Open access Oct 2008 53,362
2 A translation approach to portable ontology specifications Thomas Olaf Gruber · Knowledge Acquisition Open access Jun 1993 12,728
3 I.—COMPUTING MACHINERY AND INTELLIGENCE Alan Mathison Turing · Mind Oct 1950 10,076
4 Toward principles for the design of ontologies used for knowledge sharing? Thomas Olaf Gruber · International Journal of Human-Computer Studies Open access Nov 1995 7,721
5 Maintaining knowledge about temporal intervals James F. Allen · Communications of the ACM Open access Nov 1983 7,599
All 98 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Semantic Web and Ontologies research done?

The largest centres of Semantic Web and Ontologies research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Paris (France), Shanghai (China) and London (United Kingdom). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Bolzano, Kaiserslautern and Mannheim.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 313 works
  2. 2 ParisFrance 111 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 87 works
  4. 4 LondonUnited Kingdom 78 works
  5. 5 MoscowRussia 66 works
  6. 6 TokyoJapan 66 works
  7. 7 RomeItaly 65 works
  8. 8 ViennaAustria 64 works
  9. 9 WuhanChina 64 works
  10. 10 NanjingChina 62 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. BolzanoIT · 20.8 works17×
  2. KaiserslauternDE · 21.2 works14×
  3. MannheimDE · 21.2 works12×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Semantic Web and Ontologies than the world average.

See Semantic Web and Ontologies on the map

Where is the best place to study Semantic Web and Ontologies?

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology and RWTH Aachen University 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 21.5%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Nanyang Technologica…Hong Kong University…Eindhoven University…RWTH Aachen 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.

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
1Hong Kong University of Science and TechnologyChina 75.628.0%5.7×15 +338.0%
2Eindhoven University of TechnologyNetherlands 74.118.2%7.6×18 -0.3%
3RWTH Aachen UniversityGermany 73.215.8%7.9×41 +11.5%
4Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 69.035.1%2.4×12 +48.7%
5Tsinghua UniversityChina 68.425.2%1.9×28 +129.7%
6Zhejiang UniversityChina 64.225.9%1.4×25 +365.1%
7University of MannheimGermany 62.212.8%24.9×15 +41.5%
8Free University of Bozen-BolzanoItaly 61.817.0%31.2×20 -41.9%
9University of TwenteNetherlands 61.723.9%7.0×14 +49.7%
10University of BolognaItaly 61.013.1%5.6×30 +0.4%

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 Semantic Web and Ontologies, country by country

Is Semantic Web and Ontologies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 7% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2011.

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 Semantic Web and Ontologies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.040% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Semantic Web and Ontologies0.037% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Semantic Web and Ontologies 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%Semantic Web and Ontologies9.6% 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.

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