Research
For a world awash in preprints, published papers, and press releases on superconductivity, we have IBM researchers J.G. Bednorz and KA. Miller to thank. Their 1986 article reporting superconductivity in a copper oxide compound at 35 K, opened the floodgates to several hundred superconductivity publications in the early months of 1987.
The accompanying graph, based on data from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), show the citation record of the five superconductivity articles that were most cited during 1987 and the first quarter of 1988.
The Bednorz-Müller report (Zeitschrift für Physik B -Condensed Matter, vol. 64, pp. 189-193, September 1986) rode highest on the crest of the publishing tidal wave. By the end of March 1988, it had collected nearly 1,000 citations. An article by M.K. Wu et al. (Physical Review Letters, vol. 58, pp. 908-910,2 March 1987), reporting 93 K superconductivity in an yttrium compound, nearly matched the ...
