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Topic · Media Technology

Smart Cities and Technologies

Smart Cities and Technologies is a research topic within Media Technology. Science Explorer counts 18k research works in it since 1956. 10.3% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the innovations and challenges in the development of smart cities, focusing on aspects such as urban innovation, big data, Internet of Things, sustainability, governance, citizen participation, privacy concerns, and the role of artificial intelligence. The research covers a wide range of topics related to the conceptualization, implementation, and impact of smart city initiatives.

  • Smart Cities
  • Urban Innovation
  • Big Data
  • Internet of Things
  • Sustainability
  • Governance
  • Citizen Participation
  • Privacy Concerns
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Urban Development
Research works
18k
fractional, since 1956
In the world top 10%
1.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.3%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+59%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
22% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Smart Cities and Technologies

Which countries lead Smart Cities and Technologies research?

By volume, China and India publish the most (1.1k and 916 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.1k works
  2. 2 India 916 works
  3. 3 United States 610 works
  4. 4 Indonesia 526 works
  5. 5 Brazil 434 works
  6. 6 Italy 362 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 353 works
  8. 8 Germany 254 works
  9. 9 Türkiye 192 works
  10. 10 Malaysia 191 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.

China: 21.9%India: 18.6%United States: 12.4%Indonesia: 10.7%6 others listed: 36.3%22%largest
China1,078 · 21.9%India916 · 18.6%United States610 · 12.4%Indonesia526 · 10.7%6 others listed1,787 · 36.3%

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

Which institutions lead Smart Cities and Technologies research?

By volume in 2022-now, Politecnico di Milano publishes the most Smart Cities and Technologies research, followed by Islamic Azad University, Tehran and University of Johannesburg.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Politecnico di MilanoItaly 35 works
  2. 2 Islamic Azad University, TehranIran 33 works
  3. 3 University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 31 works
  4. 4 Binus UniversityIndonesia 29 works
  5. 5 Muhammadiyah University of YogyakartaIndonesia 28 works
  6. 6 Silesian University of TechnologyPoland 26 works
  7. 7 Universitas Gadjah MadaIndonesia 25 works
  8. 8 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 24 works
  9. 9 University of IndonesiaIndonesia 23 works
  10. 10 Chandigarh UniversityIndia 23 works

Who are the leading researchers in Smart Cities and Technologies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Smart Cities and Technologies include Seyedali Mirjalili.

  1. 1 Seyedali Mirjalili Australia 154k 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 Smart Cities and Technologies?

The most cited paper in Smart Cities and Technologies is "Smart Cities: Definitions, Dimensions, Performance, and Initiatives" (Vito Albino, Umberto Berardi, Rosa Maria Dangelico, 2015), with 3,528 citations. Next come "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" (3,259) and "The role of artificial intelligence in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals" (3,211).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Smart Cities: Definitions, Dimensions, Performance, and Initiatives Vito Albino, Umberto Berardi, Rosa Maria Dangelico · Journal of Urban Technology 2 Jan 2015 3,528
2 Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Renee John R. Repique · Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association Mar 2013 3,259
3 The role of artificial intelligence in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals Ricardo Vinuesa, Hossein Azizpour, Iolanda Leite et al. · Nature Communications Open access 13 Jan 2020 3,211
4 Conceptualizing smart city with dimensions of technology, people, and institutions Taewoo Nam, Theresa A. Pardo Conference paper 12 Jun 2011 2,795
5 The real-time city? Big data and smart urbanism Rob Kitchin · GeoJournal 28 Nov 2013 2,583
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Smart Cities and Technologies research done?

The largest centres of Smart Cities and Technologies research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), London (United Kingdom), Shanghai (China) and Jakarta (Indonesia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Gliwice.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 163 works
  2. 2 LondonUnited Kingdom 88 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 81 works
  4. 4 JakartaIndonesia 80 works
  5. 5 MoscowRussia 70 works
  6. 6 YogyakartaIndonesia 64 works
  7. 7 São PauloBrazil 61 works
  8. 8 ChennaiIndia 60 works
  9. 9 TehranIran 60 works
  10. 10 BandungIndonesia 59 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. GliwicePL · 25.8 works11×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Smart Cities and Technologies than the world average.

See Smart Cities and Technologies on the map

Where is the best place to study Smart Cities and Technologies?

Among universities, judged by research, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Queensland University of Technology and University of Johannesburg 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 25.61%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Queensland Universit…Imam Abdulrahman Bin…University of Johann…Politecnico di Milano
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
1Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal UniversitySaudi Arabia 66.544.7%6.6×9 +160.9%
2Queensland University of TechnologyAustralia 64.747.0%6.9×18 -21.8%
3University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 62.813.0%6.6×31 +139.8%
4Politecnico di MilanoItaly 61.19.5%6.5×35 +37.5%
5King Saud UniversitySaudi Arabia 59.643.3%1.3×9 +151.5%
6Silesian University of TechnologyPoland 59.513.1%13.8×26 +98.4%
7National University of SingaporeSingapore 58.831.6%1.4×12 +88.7%
8Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 57.918.9%2.4×16 +74.7%
9Islamic Azad University, TehranIran 55.57.7%2.6×33 +109.4%
10University College LondonUnited Kingdom 55.527.3%1.5×18 +4.4%

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 Smart Cities and Technologies, country by country

Is Smart Cities and Technologies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 59% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Smart Cities and Technologies.

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 Smart Cities and Technologies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.037% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Smart Cities and Technologies0.042% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Smart Cities and Technologies 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%Smart Cities and Technologies10.3% in 202520102020

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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