Mitch Garcia

Citations are often used to measure quality in the chemical literature. C&EN, in collaboration with Chemical Abstracts Service, has tabulated the most cited chemistry work published in the past decade (2004–14), and here are the top five. Although there are not many surprises on the list, the senior author of the second-most-cited paper, Hideo Hosono, never expected his paper to garner so much attention over the years. The Tokyo Institute of Technology materials scientist attributes the high citation rate to a massive increase in interest in iron-based superconductors: More than 15,000 papers have been published in the field since his seminal 2008 article, he says. In his words, “I believe iron will remain a hot topic in materials research for years to come.”