It is more statistical than an analytic description of the most important scientific advances, but it is still a notable overview. Certainly, there is no room to dispute that there has been a surge in astrophysics papers.
Over the past few years, Astrophysics has experienced an unprecedented increase in research output, as is evident from the year-over-year increase in the number of research papers put onto the arXiv. As a result, keeping up with progress happening outside our respective sub-fields can be exhausting. While it is impossible to be informed on every single aspect of every sub-field, this paper aims to be the next best thing.
We present a summary of statistics for every paper uploaded onto the Astrophysics arXiv over the past year - 2025. We analyse a host of metadata ranging from simple metrics like the number of pages and the most used keywords, as well as deeper, more interesting statistics like the distribution of journals to which papers are submitted, the most used telescopes, the most studied astrophysical objects including GW, GRB, FRB events, exoplanets and much more. We also indexed the authors' affiliations to put into context the global distribution of research and collaboration.
Combining this data with the citation information of each paper allows us to understand how influential different papers have been on the progress of the field this year. Overall, these statistics highlight the general current state of the field, the hot topics people are working on and the different research communities across the globe and how they function.
We also delve into the costs involved in publications and what it means for the community. We hope that this is helpful for both students and professionals alike to adapt their current trajectories to better benefit the field.
Rommulus Francis Lewis, Hetansh Shah, Amruth Alfred, "Astrophysics Wrapped 2025: Year-in-Review of Every Astrophysics arXiv Paper from 2025" arXiv:2602.12303 (February 11, 2026).
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