Sports injuries and prevention

Sports injuries and prevention is a research topic within Orthopedics and Sports Medicine. Science Explorer counts 59k 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 focuses on the epidemiology, risk factors, prevention, and management of musculoskeletal injuries in sports, with a particular emphasis on football (soccer) and youth athletes. It covers a wide range of topics including hamstring strains, injury patterns, injury incidence, and the effectiveness of various prevention programs.

Sports Injury
Epidemiology
Muscle Injuries
Prevention
Risk Factors
Football (Soccer)
Athletic Training
Youth Athletes
Hamstring Strain
Injury Prevention

Research works: 59k
In the world top 10%: 5.8k
Top-10% rate: 10.0%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25: +13%
Largest producer: United States

Sports injuries and prevention

This ranks research output and citation impact. It says nothing about the quality of diagnosis, treatment or care.

Which countries lead Sports injuries and prevention research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (3.2k and 1.1k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

1 United States 3.2k works
2 China 1.1k works
3 United Kingdom 932 works
4 Spain 778 works
5 Türkiye 744 works
6 Brazil 687 works
7 Australia 609 works
8 India 605 works
9 Japan 572 works
10 Germany 446 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 States3,163 · 33.0%China1,059 · 11.0%United Kingdom932 · 9.7%Spain778 · 8.1%6 others listed3,662 · 38.2%

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

Which institutions lead Sports injuries and prevention research?

By volume in 2022-now, Harvard University publishes the most Sports injuries and prevention research, followed by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and La Trobe University.

By volume, 2022-now

1 Harvard UniversityUnited States 79 works
2 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 68 works
3 La Trobe UniversityAustralia 57 works
4 Beijing Sport UniversityChina 55 works
5 University of CalgaryCanada 48 works
6 Yogyakarta State UniversityIndonesia 47 works
7 Mayo ClinicUnited States 43 works
8 German Sport University CologneGermany 38 works
9 Universidade do PortoPortugal 37 works
10 The Ohio State UniversityUnited States 37 works

Who are the leading researchers in Sports injuries and prevention?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Sports injuries and prevention include David Moher, Cyrus Cooper and Gordon Henry Guyatt.

1 David Moher Canada 898k citations
2 Cyrus Cooper United Kingdom 342k citations
3 Gordon Henry Guyatt Canada 315k citations
4 Victoria Delgado Netherlands 269k 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 Sports injuries and prevention?

The most cited paper in Sports injuries and prevention is "Measures of Reliability in Sports Medicine and Science" (Will G. Hopkins, 2000), with 4,630 citations. Next come "Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS)—Development of a Self-Administered Outcome Measure" (3,945) and "Fear of movement/(re)injury in chronic low back pain and its relation to behavioral performance" (2,462).

Most cited papers
#	Paper	Released	Citations
1	Measures of Reliability in Sports Medicine and Science Will G. Hopkins · Sports Medicine	2000	4,630
2	Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS)—Development of a Self-Administered Outcome Measure Ewa Maria Roos, Harald P. Roos, Stefan L. Lohmander et al. · Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy	Aug 1998	3,945
3	Fear of movement/(re)injury in chronic low back pain and its relation to behavioral performance Johan W.S. Vlaeyen, Ank M. J. Kole-Snijders, Ruben G. B. Boeren et al. · Pain Open access	Sep 1995	2,462
4	Physiology of Soccer Tomas St len, Karim Chamari, Carlo Castagna et al. · Sports Medicine	2005	2,293
5	Epidemiology of collegiate injuries for 15 sports: summary and recommendations for injury prevention initiatives. Jennifer M. Hootman, Randall W. Dick, Julie A. Agel · PubMed Open access	27 Sep 2007	2,194

All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Sports injuries and prevention research done?

The largest centres of Sports injuries and prevention research in 2022-now are Tokyo (Japan), Beijing (China), London (United Kingdom) and Melbourne (Australia).

Largest cities, 2022-now

1 TokyoJapan 191 works
2 BeijingChina 178 works
3 LondonUnited Kingdom 178 works
4 MelbourneAustralia 151 works
5 IstanbulTürkiye 137 works
6 São PauloBrazil 132 works
7 MadridSpain 129 works
8 New YorkUnited States 128 works
9 TehranIran 122 works
10 ShanghaiChina 120 works

See Sports injuries and prevention on the map

Where is the best place to study Sports injuries and prevention?

Among universities, judged by research, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Beijing Sport University and Linköping 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.

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.

#	University	Score	Top 10%	Specialisation	Works	Growth
1	Universiti Putra MalaysiaMalaysia	62.5	38.0%	2.6×	18	+250.0%
2	Beijing Sport UniversityChina	61.5	18.3%	60.6×	55	+368.0%
3	Linköping UniversitySweden	61.4	24.7%	5.8×	22	+31.3%
4	Loughborough UniversityUnited Kingdom	59.2	22.4%	11.3×	35	+6.1%
5	Shanghai University of SportChina	59.0	21.8%	47.6×	36	+54.8%
6	Universidade do PortoPortugal	58.9	17.0%	4.2×	37	+23.3%
7	Manchester Metropolitan UniversityUnited Kingdom	58.7	21.3%	10.9×	24	+35.0%
8	Middlesex UniversityUnited Kingdom	58.7	36.4%	18.0×	13	+3.9%
9	Guangzhou Sport UniversityChina	58.2	36.2%	67.1×	15	+1111.2%
10	Edith Cowan UniversityAustralia	57.5	23.2%	20.1×	37	-19.9%
11	University of NicosiaCyprus	56.9	30.0%	11.1×	10	+75.1%
12	University of GrazAustria	56.7	30.2%	6.0×	14	+65.5%
13	University of CalgaryCanada	56.3	13.6%	5.2×	48	+6.1%
14	Universidad de ExtremaduraSpain	56.0	16.7%	13.1×	35	+16.0%
15	University of SuffolkUnited Kingdom	55.5	43.1%	32.5×	9	-22.1%
16	German Sport University CologneGermany	55.1	13.5%	49.3×	38	+19.2%
17	Norwegian School of Sport SciencesNorway	55.1	20.3%	97.6×	25	-17.4%
18	Harvard UniversityUnited States	54.7	13.2%	1.9×	79	-12.8%
19	Gdansk University of Physical Education and SportPoland	54.7	20.2%	86.0×	18	+180.7%
20	Aristotle University of ThessalonikiGreece	54.6	16.8%	5.6×	37	+90.6%
21	University of GothenburgSweden	54.6	15.4%	4.0×	26	+51.1%
22	La Trobe UniversityAustralia	54.2	14.3%	14.2×	57	-18.5%
23	Akademii Wychowania Fizycznego im. Jerzego Kukuczki w KatowicachPoland	53.6	16.9%	121.5×	25	+36.0%
24	Universidad de GranadaSpain	53.4	16.4%	4.6×	35	+10.8%
25	Universidad Europea de MadridSpain	53.4	12.2%	29.6×	30	+95.9%
26	Foro Italico University of RomeItaly	53.3	20.9%	79.6×	18	+50.2%
27	Universidad Católica de MurciaSpain	53.0	22.2%	31.2×	20	+26.4%
28	University of KansasUnited States	52.7	26.5%	3.8×	25	+83.8%
29	Nord UniversityNorway	52.5	19.6%	21.6×	18	+14.9%
30	Universidad Andrés BelloChile	52.5	21.0%	12.7×	15	+382.0%
31	Liverpool John Moores UniversityUnited Kingdom	52.1	19.1%	11.3×	23	-8.4%
32	Leeds Beckett UniversityUnited Kingdom	51.6	19.9%	29.9×	30	-10.1%
33	Auckland University of TechnologyNew Zealand	51.5	18.1%	13.9×	33	-24.6%
34	University of LisbonPortugal	51.5	21.1%	2.0×	22	+35.9%
35	University of SalfordUnited Kingdom	50.8	28.4%	17.2×	21	-28.5%
36	Université de LyonFrance	50.4	10.9%	3.7×	32	+28.9%
37	Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina	49.0	23.4%	0.7×	27	+92.1%
38	University of Beira InteriorPortugal	49.0	21.5%	11.4×	16	+12.1%
39	University of Southern DenmarkDenmark	48.7	18.7%	3.8×	21	-2.1%
40	Manouba UniversityTunisia	48.4	16.7%	14.4×	12	+19.9%
41	Yogyakarta State UniversityIndonesia	44.8	2.8%	6.1×	47	+438.9%
42	St Mary's University Twickenham LondonUnited Kingdom	43.5	27.8%	72.6×	12	-10.0%
43	University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States	43.2	4.8%	2.8×	68	-33.5%
44	Karolinska InstitutetSweden	43.2	20.0%	2.2×	17	-14.7%
45	Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina	39.1	17.1%	0.9×	10	+20.7%
46	University of Technology SydneyAustralia	38.0	17.6%	2.3×	14	-30.8%
47	The Ohio State UniversityUnited States	37.4	5.6%	2.3×	37	-13.0%
48	King Saud UniversitySaudi Arabia	32.3	6.5%	0.9×	12	+118.5%
49	National University of SingaporeSingapore	32.0	10.6%	0.6×	10	+55.7%
50	Hungarian University of Sports ScienceHungary	31.1	4.1%	52.6×	12	-3.7%
51	Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore	24.8	17.2%	0.8×	9	-30.7%

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 Sports injuries and prevention, country by country

Is Sports injuries and prevention research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 13% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021. The fastest-growing topics are Sports injuries and prevention.

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 Sports injuries and prevention as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.065% in 2024.

Fractional works of Sports injuries and prevention 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.

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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Which countries lead Sports injuries and prevention research?

By volume, 2022-now

How concentrated that is

Which institutions lead Sports injuries and prevention research?

By volume, 2022-now

Who are the leading researchers in Sports injuries and prevention?

What are the most cited papers in Sports injuries and prevention?

Where is Sports injuries and prevention research done?

Largest cities, 2022-now

Where is the best place to study Sports injuries and prevention?

Is Sports injuries and prevention research growing?

Its share of all research

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Which topics inside it are moving

Related research

Discussion