Clarivate and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have released the 2025 Research Fronts report to identify trending and emerging areas of global scientific research. The 2025 Research Fronts report is the 12th annual collaboration between Clarivate and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and was launched at a ceremony in Beijing.
The report identifies 128 Research Fronts, including 110 hot fronts and 18 emerging fronts. Hot Research Fronts represent active areas of study, while emerging Research Fronts indicate rapidly developing field in scientific research. The organizations noted that identifying these specialty areas supports administrators and policymakers who need to monitor, strengthen, and guide research activities under resource constraints.
The report highlights the rapid development of artificial intelligence through several emerging fronts. In clinical medicine, one emerging front focuses on applications of the AI language model ChatGPT in medical and health fields. In the biological sciences, the report highlights breakthroughs in AI-driven structural prediction and design of biomolecular complexes. In economics, psychology, and other social sciences, an emerging front examines practical applications and risk management of generative AI in the business domain.
The report outlines that the annual Research Fronts analysis helps envision future developments in science and social science by identifying the most active and emerging specialty areas. It also emphasizes the role of long-term partnerships in supporting libraries, researchers, and academic institutions as they advance research and education.
Clarivate and CAS have also published Research Fronts 2025: Active Fields, Leading Countries/Regions, a comparative analysis examining performance across the 128 Research Fronts. According to the findings, the United States continues to lead research activity in 11 broad scientific and social science fields, with Mainland China ranking second, and the gap between the two has narrowed.
The Research Fronts 2025 report continues to rely primarily on co-citation analysis within bibliometrics. Using 13,830 Research Fronts from the Essential Science Indicators database, the analysis identified 107 hot fronts and 18 emerging fronts, including front clusters. An additional three hot fronts were selected from Emerging Topics in the Research Horizon Navigator database, bringing the totals to 110 hot fronts and 18 emerging fronts.
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