|
Rank
|
Research Topic
|
Core Papers
|
Cites
|
Cites/
Paper
|
Mean Year
|
|
1
|
MULTIPLE M2 BRANES AND BAGGER-LAMBERT THEORY
Research Front Map:
BAGGER-LAMBERT
THEORY
|
17
|
189
|
11.12
|
2008
|
|
2
|
IRON-BASED SUPERCONDUCTORS
Research Front
Map:
IRON-BASED LAYERED SUPERCONDUCTORS
|
14
|
298
|
21.29
|
2007.7
|
|
3
|
UNPARTICLE PHYSICS
|
40
|
817
|
20.43
|
2007.7
|
|
4
|
GRAPHENE
Research Front Maps:
GRAPHENE
DOPING
GRAPHENE
NANORIBBONS
MULTILAYER
GRAPHENE
QUANTUM
HALL EFFECT IN GRAPHENE
|
16
|
234
|
14.62
|
2007.5
|
|
5
|
HUMAN INDUCED PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS
|
27
|
1,842
|
68.22
|
2007.3
|
|
6
|
INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE GENE AND CROHN'S DISEASE
SUSCEPTIBILITY
|
34
|
1,629
|
47.91
|
2007.2
|
|
7
|
THREE-YEAR WILKINSON MICROWAVE ANISOTROPY PROBE (WMAP
OBSERVATIONS
|
4
|
1,271
|
317.75
|
2007
|
|
8
|
TREATMENT-RESISTANT DEPRESSION AND DEEP BRAIN
STIMULATION
Research Front Map:
DEPRESSION
CARE
|
4
|
271
|
67.75
|
2007
|
|
9
|
DARK ENERGY
|
23
|
5,551
|
241.35
|
2005.7
|
|
10
|
AUTOPHAGY
|
32
|
5,505
|
172.03
|
2005.1
|
Thomson
Reuters has developed co-citation methodologies over the
years and employs it in its
Essential Science
IndicatorsSM database to construct so-called
research fronts. A research front consists of a group of highly cited
papers that are co-cited, meaning the core papers are cited in pairs.
By collecting the core papers cited pairwise (A and B, B and C, C and
D, D and A, C and B, B and D, A and C, and so on depending on the size
of the core literature), a cluster of highly related papers can be
identified. These typically represent subspecialties. By examining the
average age (mean year) of the co-cited core papers, hot research
fronts emerge. A hot research front, in which the core, or foundation,
papers are of recent vintage, suggests new, rapidly developing areas.
The table above lists a selection of hot research fronts, ranked by the
mean year of the core papers. These were chosen for their age, size,
and apparent weight within their representative subject areas.
Science magazine recently named the area ranked fifth, which
it termed “Reprogramming Cells”, as its Breakthrough Area
of Year for 2008 in its 19 December 2008 issue. It also listed the
field ranked second as a runner-up.
SOURCE: Thomson Reuters’s Essential Science Indicators
database, January 1, 1998 through August 31, 2008
See Research Front Maps for
additional information. Research fronts are clusters of highly cited
papers and research front maps are diagrammatic representations of the
co-citation links among the highly cited papers that comprise the
cluster. Fronts are selected from the Research Fronts section of
Essential Science Indicators which is updated every two
months. Some maps also link to author commentaries for specific papers.
