World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
Infant and Child Development
H-index 16

Infant and Child Development

Ranking & Metrics

Discipline name Position Best Scientists Publications D-Index
Psychology 404 156 222 16
Social Sciences and Humanities 1179 6 10 4

Additional Metrics

Number of Best Scientists*: 172
Documents by Best Scientists*: 231
Top 100 Ranked Scientists*: 6
SCIMAGO H-index: 70
SCIMAGO SJR: 0.888
Impact Factor: 2.9

Overview

Top Research Topics at Infant and Child Development?

Infant and Child Development generally zeroes in on subjects such as Developmental psychology, Social psychology, Child development, Cognitive psychology and Cognition. Early childhood is a primary topic of Developmental psychology research in the journal. Infant and Child Development dives deep in exploring the relationship between the study of Child development and Parenting styles.

The Cognitive psychology study tackled is a key component of adjacent topics in the area of Task (project management). Infant and Child Development is focused mainly on Cognition, particularly Theory of mind. Clinical psychology research discussed connects with the study of Child rearing.

  • Developmental psychology (66.50%)
  • Social psychology (15.76%)
  • Child development (13.30%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

  • How specific is the relation between executive function and theory of mind? Contributions of inhibitory control and working memory (605 citations)
  • Cumulative Parenting Stress Across the Preschool Period: Relations to Maternal Parenting and Child Behaviour at Age 5. (553 citations)
  • The relationships between parenting stress, parenting behaviour and preschoolers' social competence and behaviour problems in the classroom (458 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at Infant and Child Development:

The journal publications mostly deal with topics like Developmental psychology, Social psychology, Cognition, Child development and Cognitive psychology. The journal publications center on topics in Developmental psychology, with a focus on Early childhood. The most cited papers address concerns in the field of Social psychology by exploring it in line with topics in Context (language use) which intersect with Strange situation subjects.

What topics the last edition of the journal is best known for?

  • Developmental psychology
  • Social psychology
  • Cognition

The previous edition focused in particular on these issues:

The journal tackles a plethora of topics, such as Developmental psychology, Cognitive psychology, Social psychology, Context (language use) and Theory of mind. Developmental psychology research presented in Infant and Child Development encompasses a variety of subjects, including Shyness and Social cognition. Topics in Cognitive psychology explored in Infant and Child Development were investigated in conjunction with research in Early reading, Similarity (network science), Eye tracking and Fluency.

Honesty, Socialization, Compliance (psychology) and Loneliness research are fields of study within Social psychology but they also intertwine with concepts in Reputation. The research on Context (language use) tackled can also make contributions to studies in the areas of Middle childhood, Age differences and Word learning. It focuses on Theory of mind but sometimes tackles the closely related topic of Perception which is concerned with Clinical psychology.

The most cited articles from the last journal are:

  • Children's judgements of positive claims people make about themselves (3 citations)
  • Seven-year-olds' references to internal states when playing with toy figures and a video game. (2 citations)
  • The role of mother's prenatal substance use disorder and early parenting on child social cognition at school age (2 citations)

Papers citation over time

A key indicator for each journal is its effectiveness in reaching other researchers with the papers published at that venue.

The chart below presents the interquartile range (first quartile 25%, median 50% and third quartile 75%) of the number of citations of articles over time.

The top authors publishing in Infant and Child Development (based on the number of publications) are:

  • Nina Howe (11 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Robert J. Coplan (8 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Kang Lee (8 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition,
  • Gail D. Heyman (8 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition the same number as at the previous edition,
  • Dale M. Stack (8 papers) absent at the last edition.

The overall trend for top authors publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top authors.

Only papers with recognized affiliations are considered

The top affiliations publishing in Infant and Child Development (based on the number of publications) are:

  • Pennsylvania State University (23 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition the same number as at the previous edition,
  • Concordia University (22 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Utrecht University (19 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • University of Dundee (18 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Lancaster University (18 papers) absent at the last edition.

The overall trend for top affiliations publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top affiliations.

Publication chance based on affiliation

The publication chance index shows the ratio of articles published by the best research institutions in the journal edition to all articles published within that journal. The best research institutions were selected based on the largest number of articles published during all editions of the journal.

The chart below presents the percentage ratio of articles from top institutions (based on their ranking of total papers).Top affiliations were grouped by their rank into the following tiers: top 1-10, top 11-20, top 21-50, and top 51+. Only articles with a recognized affiliation are considered.

During the most recent 2021 edition, 0.00% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 6.25% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 4.69% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 20.31% of all publications and 68.75% were from other institutions.

Returning Authors Index

A very common phenomenon observed among researchers publishing scientific articles is the intentional selection of journals they have already attended in the past. In particular, it is worth analyzing the case when the authors participate in the same journal from year to year.

The Returning Authors Index presented below illustrates the ratio of authors who participated in both a given as well as the previous edition of the journal in relation to all participants in a given year.

Returning Institution Index

The graph below shows the Returning Institution Index, illustrating the ratio of institutions that participated in both a given and the previous edition of the conference in relation to all affiliations present in a given year.

The experience to innovation index

Our experience to innovation index was created to show a cross-section of the experience level of authors publishing in a journal. The index includes the authors publishing at the last edition of a journal, grouped by total number of publications throughout their academic career (P) and the total number of citations of these publications ever received (C).

The group intervals were selected empirically to best show the diversity of the authors' experiences, their labels were selected as a convenience, not as judgment. The authors were divided into the following groups:

  • Novice - P < 5 or C < 25 (the number of publications less than 5 or the number of citations less than 25),
  • Competent - P < 10 or C < 100 (the number of publications less than 10 or the number of citations less than 100),
  • Experienced - P < 25 or C < 625 (the number of publications less than 25 or the number of citations less than 625),
  • Master - P < 50 or C < 2500 (the number of publications less than 50 or the number of citations less than 2500),
  • Star - P ≥ 50 and C ≥ 2500 (both the number of publications greater than 50 and the number of citations greater than 2500).

The chart below illustrates experience levels of first authors in cases of publications with multiple authors.

Career Opportunities in the Field of Infant and Child Development

Building a successful career in the field of infant and child development involves intensive research and practical experiences in various topics we've explored. Career options range from child psychologists, developmental psychologists, school psychologists, and many others. Each role has a different set of responsibilities and prerequisites.

For instance, if you're interested in becoming a School Psychologist, various steps must be taken, including acquiring relevant degrees, completing internships, and sometimes obtaining state licensure. For more detailed information on this career path, you can explore our comprehensive guide on how to become a school psychologist in Oklahoma.

Apart from being a school psychologist, the research and knowledge in the field of infant and child development also open opportunities in other niche areas such as child advocacy, early intervention services, child care consulting, and more. So, explore more, and keep yourself updated with the latest infant and child development research for a promising career in this field.

Top Publications

  • Publishing child development research from around the world: An unfair playing field resulting in most of the world's child population under‐represented in research

    Unknown

    (2022)
    165 Citations
  • Six solutions for more reliable infant research

    (2021)
    82 Citations
  • Early childhood education and care (ECEC) during COVID‐19 boosts growth in language and executive function

    Catherine Davies;Alexandra Hendry;Shannon P. Gibson;Teodora Gliga

    (2021)
    71 Citations
  • Similarities and differences across countries in the development of executive functions in children: A systematic review

    Katharina Schirmbeck;Nirmala Rao;Claudia Maehler

    (2020)
    71 Citations
  • Best practices for addressing missing data through multiple imputation

    (2023)
    64 Citations
  • Should infant psychology rely on the <scp>violation‐of‐expectation</scp> method? Not anymore

    (2022)
    31 Citations
  • Teacher-Child Interaction Quality and Children's Self-Regulation in Toddler Classrooms in Finland and Portugal.

    Jenni Salminen;Carolina Guedes;Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen;Eija Pakarinen

    (2021)
    31 Citations
  • The role of empathy in children's costly prosocial lie‐telling behaviour

    Pooja Megha Nagar;Oksana Caivano;Victoria Talwar

    (2020)
    24 Citations
  • Parenting and Children's Executive Function Stability Across the Transition to School

    Abigail F. Helm;Sarah A. McCormick;Kirby Deater‐Deckard;Cynthia L. Smith

    (2020)
    24 Citations

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Best Scientists Contributing to This Journal