Nature explores the most-cited research of all time.
Fifty years ago, Eugene Garfield published the Science Citation Index (SCI), the first systematic effort to track citations in the scientific literature. To mark the anniversary, Nature asked Thomson Reuters, which now owns the SCI, to list the 100 most highly cited papers of all time. (See the full list at Web of Science Top 100.xls or the interactive graphic, below.) The search covered all of Thomson Reuter’s Web of Science, an online version of the SCI that also includes databases covering the social sciences, arts and humanities, conference proceedings and some books. It lists papers published from 1900 to the present day.
Seventh position in the list of most-cited research of all time and in all topics:
Rank: 7 Citations: 46,702
Development of the Colle-Salvetti correlation-energy formula into a functional of the electron density.
Lee, C., Yang, W. & Parr, R. G.
Phys. Rev. B 37, 785-789 (1988).
Thank you Dad, you were the best!
(see The top 100 papers )