The recent release of journal impact factors (IF) for 2020 has highlighted a consistent improvement for JSST over the past few years, with the 2020 IF of 2.326 building significantly on the 2019 value (2.008). While a part of this increase can be attributed to a new approach recently adopted by Clarivate TM for calculating the IF, it is also a reflection on the ever-increasing citations of JSST papers by the sol-gel community. Overall, 579 papers published in JSST during 2018 and 2019 contributed to the IF calculated for 2020.
Of course, the IF is a global parameter that focusses on the overall citation activity of a journal, while neglecting the contributions of individual papers and authors. Hence, it is also of interest to highlight the work of those authors whose papers have had the most significant impact on the work of others, as measured by the number of times they have been cited. Below, we present the five JSST papers that have attracted the most citations within the scientific literature, as measured by SCOPUS and Clarivate.
- R. López and R. Gómez, ”Band-gap energy estimation from diffuse reflectance measurements on sol-gel and commercial TiO2 : A comparative study”, JSST (2012) 61(1), 1-7 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-011 -2582-9). Scopus (904 citations); Clarivate (887 citations). This work, from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa (Mexico), is currently the most highly cited paper published to date in JSST. It has been cited 116 times during 2021 alone (Scopus) by papers focussing on photocatalysis, photovoltaics, antibacterial activity, self-cleaning materials, water splitting, etc. The annual number of citations of this work is still on an upward trajectory, so it is undoubtedly safe to assume that it will exceed 1000 citations within the next 12 months, particularly given the strong interest in titania-based materials in photocatalysis and photovoltaics.
- M. Kakihana, “Sol-Gel preparation of high temperature superconducting oxides”, JSST (1996) 6(1), 7-55 (https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00402588). Scopus (740 citations); Clarivate (724 citations). This topical review from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan) was published during a period of intense international research activity focussed on the development of superconductors with critical temperatures above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. Despite the fact that it was published over 15 years ago, it continues to attract citation activity, reflecting its ongoing importance in the field of high Tc materials.
- M. Koebel, A. Rigacci and P. Achard, “Aerogel-based thermal superinsulation: An overview”, JSST (2012) 63(3), 315-339 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-012-2792-9). Scopus (361 citations); Clarivate (343 citations). As is well known, aerogels are another area of intense research activity within the materials chemistry community, given the diverse technological areas in which they are applied. This review from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Switzerland) and MINES ParisTech (France) is still attracting significant citation activity, particularly from Chinese colleagues where intense effort is being directed towards the commercialisation of aerogels.
- C.G. Pantano, A.K. Singh and H. Zhang, “Silicon oxycarbide glasses”, JSST (1999) 14(1), 7-25 (https:/ doi.org/10.1023/A:1008765829012). Scopus (335 citations); Clarivate (331 citations). This work from the Pennsylvania State University (USA) is also still being cited and its inclusion on this list is particularly poignant given the upcoming UN International Year of Glass in 2022.
- M. Guglielmi, “Sol-Gel Coatings on Metals”, JSST (1997) 8(1-3), 443-449 (https://doi.org/10.1007 BF02436880). Scopus (326 citations); Clarivate (309 citations). Coatings for diverse applications on a variety of substrates continue to be an area of importance for sol-gel science and technology, as reflected in the sustained citation activity over nearly 25 years of this work from the Università di Padova (Italy).
It is interesting to note that none of these papers appear to have been directly cited in the patent literature (SciFindern ) as of the time of writing, and in a future edition of the Newsletter, we will focus on peer-reviewed journal papers in sol-gel science that have been well cited in the patent literature.
