---
title: "Clustering research: papers, trends and top journals"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “clustering” appeared in 1,040 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in AI (620), operations research (171) and statistics (85)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/clustering
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/clustering.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “clustering” appeared in 1,040 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in AI (620), operations research (171) and statistics (85). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “clustering”

Research on “clustering” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “clustering” appeared in 1,040 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in AI (620), operations research (171) and statistics (85).
- 112 of them were published in 2025, against 84 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Northwestern Polytechnical University (15), Sichuan University (8) and Southwest Jiaotong University (8).
- The journals publishing most of them were Expert Systems with Applications (58), Pattern Recognition (34) and Knowledge-Based Systems (31).
- The most-cited of them is “Machine learning and data mining in manufacturing” (Expert Systems with Applications, 2020), with 684 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 55 | 51 | 48 | 59 | 71 | 92 | 80 | 57 | 69 | 38 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 12 | 14 | 12 | 24 | 13 | 26 | 24 | 15 | 15 | 16 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 6 | 8 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 11 | 8 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 4 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 3 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 2 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 0 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 84 | 90 | 86 | 115 | 102 | 146 | 133 | 101 | 112 | 71 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Expert Systems with Applications](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/expert-systems-with-applications.md) | 58 |
| 2 | [Pattern Recognition](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/pattern-recognition.md) | 34 |
| 3 | [Knowledge-Based Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/knowledge-based-systems.md) | 31 |
| 4 | [IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/ieee-transactions-on-neural-networks-and-learning-systems.md) | 13 |
| 5 | [Applied Intelligence](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/applied-intelligence.md) | 12 |
| 6 | [Neural Computing and Applications](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/neural-computing-and-applications.md) | 11 |
| 7 | [Artificial Intelligence Review](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/artificial-intelligence-review.md) | 10 |
| 8 | [Neural Networks](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/neural-networks.md) | 10 |
| 9 | [IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/ieee-transactions-on-pattern-analysis-and-machine-intelligence.md) | 9 |
| 10 | [IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/ieee-transactions-on-knowledge-and-data-engineering.md) | 9 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Northwestern Polytechnical University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/northwestern-polytechnical-university.md) | 15 |
| 2 | [Sichuan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/sichuan-university.md) | 8 |
| 3 | [Southwest Jiaotong University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/southwest-jiaotong-university.md) | 8 |
| 4 | [Xi'an Jiaotong University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xi-an-jiaotong-university.md) | 7 |
| 5 | [Harbin Institute of Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/harbin-institute-of-technology.md) | 6 |
| 6 | [Xidian University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xidian-university.md) | 6 |
| 7 | [Beihang University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/beihang-university.md) | 5 |
| 8 | [Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/centre-national-de-la-recherche-scientifique.md) | 5 |
| 9 | [National University of Defense Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/national-university-of-defense-technology.md) | 5 |
| 10 | [Ningbo University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/ningbo-university.md) | 5 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 165 |
| 2 | United States | 40 |
| 3 | Spain | 28 |
| 4 | India | 25 |
| 5 | Italy | 20 |
| 6 | Germany | 19 |
| 7 | France | 17 |
| 8 | United Kingdom | 17 |
| 9 | Iran | 17 |
| 10 | Canada | 15 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [dimensionality reduction](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/dimensionality-reduction.md) | 24 |
| 2 | classification | 21 |
| 3 | [feature selection](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/feature-selection.md) | 21 |
| 4 | [high-dimensional data](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/high-dimensional-data.md) | 17 |
| 5 | unsupervised feature selection | 15 |
| 6 | [pseudo-labeling](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/pseudo-labeling.md) | 13 |
| 7 | [unsupervised learning](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/unsupervised-learning.md) | 13 |
| 8 | [anomaly detection](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/anomaly-detection.md) | 11 |
| 9 | hierarchical clustering | 11 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 684 | 9.4 | [Machine learning and data mining in manufacturing](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2020.114060) | [Expert Systems with Applications](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/expert-systems-with-applications.md) | 2020-09-29 | Alican Doğan, Derya Birant |
| 2 | 505 | 6.7 | [Predictive big data analytics for supply chain demand forecasting: methods, applications, and research opportunities](https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-020-00329-2) | [Journal Of Big Data](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-big-data.md) | 2020-07-25 | Mahya Seyedan, Fereshteh Mafakheri |
| 3 | 499 | 4.8 | [Review of studies on the public–private partnerships (PPP) for infrastructure projects](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2018.03.004) | [International Journal of Project Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-project-management.md) | 2018-04-04 | Caiyun Cui, Yong Liu, Alex John Hope et al. |
| 4 | 376 | 3.2 | [Learning analytics to unveil learning strategies in a flipped classroom](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2017.02.001) | [The Internet and Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-internet-and-higher-education.md) | 2017-02-20 | Jelena Jovanović, Dragan Gašević, Shane Dawson et al. |
| 5 | 368 | 5.0 | [Optimization problems for machine learning: A survey](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2020.08.045) | [European Journal of Operational Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/european-journal-of-operational-research.md) | 2020-08-29 | Claudio Gambella, Bissan Ghaddar, Joe Naoum‐Sawaya |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “clustering”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/clustering

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-clustering,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “clustering”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/clustering}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).