Essential Science Indicators^SM from Clarivate Analytics contains data on Research Fronts (see Research Front Methodology) which are updated every two months. As part of this bimonthly processing, ScienceWatch.com selects the Research Fronts with the largest absolute increase in size in each of the 22 major fields covered by Essential Science Indicators. The size of a research front is determined by the number of core papers it contains.

In addition, some fronts have been mapped. Research front maps are diagrammatic representations of the co-citation links among the highly cited papers that comprise the cluster. For details on the number of core papers and other statistical characteristics of each Front, see the Research Fronts section of Essential Science Indicators.