2025 Research Fronts Report
Annual report identifies 110 hot and 18 emerging Research Fronts
Clarivate and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) released the 2025 Research Fronts, an annual report that identifies key areas of research to watch. This report marks the 12th annual collaboration between the two organizations and was launched at a ceremony held in Beijing.
The report identifies a total of 128 Research Fronts, which include 110 ‘hot’ Fronts and 18 ‘emerging’ Fronts. A hot Research Front represents an active area of study, while an emerging Research Front indicates a rapidly developing field in scientific research. The ability to identify these specialty areas of research provides a distinct advantage for administrators and policymakers who need to monitor, support, and advance research, often in the face of finite resources.
The rapid development of artificial intelligence is reflected in several emerging fronts highlighted in this year’s report. For example:
The Research Fronts 2025 report continues to be based mainly on co-citation analysis in the field of bibliometrics. Using 13,830 Research Fronts from the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) database by Clarivate, it identifies 107 hot Research Fronts and 18 emerging Research Fronts, including front clusters. Additionally, based on Emerging Topics from the Research Horizon Navigator database, three more hot fronts were selected, bringing the total to 110 hot fronts and 18 emerging fronts.
Learn more about this year’s report and the highlighted Research Fronts.
The report identifies a total of 128 Research Fronts, which include 110 ‘hot’ Fronts and 18 ‘emerging’ Fronts. A hot Research Front represents an active area of study, while an emerging Research Front indicates a rapidly developing field in scientific research. The ability to identify these specialty areas of research provides a distinct advantage for administrators and policymakers who need to monitor, support, and advance research, often in the face of finite resources.
The rapid development of artificial intelligence is reflected in several emerging fronts highlighted in this year’s report. For example:
- In clinical medicine, one emerging front is the applications of the AI language model ChatGPT in the medical and health fields.
- In the biological sciences, a highlighted emerging front is the breakthrough in AI-driven structural prediction and design of biomolecular complexes.
- In economics, psychology, and other social sciences, there is an emerging front on the practical applications and risk management of generative AI in the business domain.
The Research Fronts 2025 report continues to be based mainly on co-citation analysis in the field of bibliometrics. Using 13,830 Research Fronts from the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) database by Clarivate, it identifies 107 hot Research Fronts and 18 emerging Research Fronts, including front clusters. Additionally, based on Emerging Topics from the Research Horizon Navigator database, three more hot fronts were selected, bringing the total to 110 hot fronts and 18 emerging fronts.
Learn more about this year’s report and the highlighted Research Fronts.
