SPECIAL TOPICS

Graphene

Published: December 2008

The baseline time span for this database is (publication years) 1998-August 31, 2008 from the fourth bimonthly update (a 10-year + 8-month period). The resulting database contained 2,777 (10 years) and 1,531 (2 years) papers; 5,804 authors; 65 nations; 348 journals; and 1,320 institutions. See additional paper information below in the overview & methodology sections.

OVERVIEW

The nanomaterial graphene has been attracting a lot of attention over the past few years, thanks to its unique combination of a simple structure of bonded carbon atoms with its myriad and complex physical properties. The potential applications for graphene—as a sensor device, as a semiconductor, or for components of integrated circuits—have made the material a hot property. This month, ScienceWatch.com examines the literature on this innovative material.

The highly cited papers in this topic focus mainly on the structure and physical properties of various graphene formations. Structures include nanoribbons, stacks, sheets, and two-dimensional layers. Energy gaps, splitting, atomic defects, carrier transport, electron-electron interactions, electron spin transport, ferromagnetism, and semiconducting abilities are among the physical properties being explored. More recent papers are focusing on potential applications of graphene, such as field-effect devices, semiconductors, and electromechanical resonators.

Methodology: The baseline time span for this database is (publication years) 1998-August 31, 2008 from the fourth bimonthly update (a 10-year + 8-month period). The resulting database contained 2,777 (10 years) and 1,531 (2 years) papers; 5,804 authors; 65 nations; 348 journals; and 1,320 institutions.

Papers: To construct the top 20 papers lists for the past decade and the past two years, the papers were further narrowed down by the title keywords "graphene." This adjustment resulted in the top 20 papers being selected from a pool of 637 (10 years) and 525 (2 years) papers.

Rankings: Once the database was in place, it was used to generate list of authors, journals, institutions, and nations. Rankings for author, journal, institution, and country are listed in three ways: according to total cites, total papers, and total cites/paper. The paper thresholds and corresponding percentages used to determine scientist, institution, country, and journal rankings according to total cites/paper, and total papers respectively are as follows: