The Physics field includes journals that cover the following topics:

• mathematical physics
• particle and nuclear physics
• physics of fluids and plasmas
• quantum physics
• theoretical physics
• applied physics
• condensed matter physics
• physics of materials 
• optics and acoustics

The top 20 Physics institutions are a global representation of universities and government agencies. The collaborative nature of particle physics research is evident in the presence of several heavily cited reviews of particle physics papers (one of which has over 2,000 citations), jointly authored by scientists from many of our top 20 institutions.

Germany’s Max Planck Society takes the lead in this list, with 15,964 papers cited a total of 201,420 times to date. The Society’s most-cited papers in this field are dominated by particle physics papers, superfluids, superconductors, solar neutrinos, quantum dots, and polyatomic systems.

The University of Tokyo places at #2 with 14,430 papers cited a total of 152,240 times. Particle physics, magnetoresistant materials, atmospheric neutrinos, copper oxide superconductors, metal insulator transitions, and semiconductors are among the heavily-cited topics in this field for the University of Tokyo. The other Japanese institution on this list is Tohoku University, which ranks at #13 with 10,092 papers cited a total of 91,429 times.

Italy’s Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) ranks at #3, with 13,009 papers cited a total of 139,169 times. INFN also focuses a great deal on particle physics, but has other topics that are highly cited as well, such as thermonuclear reaction rates, top quark production, stochastic resonance, and the Chooz Long Baseline Reactor Neutrino Oscillation Experiment.

MIT is the highest-ranking US-based institution on this list, ranking at #4 with 7,730 papers cited a total of 138,505 times. Among MIT’s highly cited papers are such diverse topics as extra dimensions, Bose-Einstein Condensates, carbon nanotubes, and photonic crystals.

The Russian Academy of Science enters the list at #5, with 29,728 papers cited a total of 126,159 times. Chaotic oscillators are heavily represented in the Academy’s highly cited papers, as are solar neutrinos, and Langmuir monolayers.

The University of California, Berkeley is the first of four California institutions in the top 20, ranking at #6 with 7,406 papers cited a total of 119,944 times. Particle physics, cosmic microwave background radiation, and solar neutrinos are significant topics among UC Berkeley’s highly cited papers in Physics. Other California institutions in the top 20 are Stanford University (#8), the University of California, Santa Barbara (#9), and Caltech (#16).

The European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) ranks at #7, with 6,852 papers cited a total of 113,679 times. Some of the topics included among CERN’s highly cited papers in Physics are: extra spacetime dimensions, string solitons, grand unification, quantum gravity, and reports on the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron.

The UK and France are also represented on our list of the top 20 institutions in Physics. The UK is represented by the University of Cambridge at #11, with 7,303 papers cited a total of 95,278 times, and France is represented by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) at #19, with 9,919 papers cited a total of 75,544 times.

The top 20 institutions in Physics are listed in full in the table below: