As of 2026-09-11 · the last 10 years
Research intensity currently sits at about 21% of the element's all-time peak, a level that has remained flat over the last decade.
Research intensity ran from about 25% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 21% in 2026 — flat overall, with some movement in between, and the all-time peak (1967) lies before this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements held steady. Among the 118 elements, fermium has one of the smaller research literatures of any element.
The number of papers involving the element held roughly level from about 30 in 2016 to about 32 in 2025. That is slower than the literature as a whole grew over the same years, so the element lost ground in the wider body of research.
The dominant research community is Fermium Fission Dynamics and Isomerism, which accounts for about 91% of the element's recent research. This group analyzes the fission modes, dynamics, and isomerism of fermium isotopes, distinguishing this work from the broader focus on superheavy element synthesis. Fermium is a minor presence in this much larger community, with under 1% of its papers involving the element. The community's share has been rising, growing from about 69% in the first half of the window to its current level. A key text in this area is a 2018 review on nuclear fission progress, cited over 180 times, alongside a 2024 Nature paper on fermium charge radii, cited about 11 times.
Other communities, including Actinide Chemistry and Nuclear Fuel Materials, Uranium Extraction and Separation, and Computational Materials Science, have seen their shares decline to near zero in the most recent period. For instance, the Actinide Chemistry community, where fermium is a minor presence, dropped from a 7.7% share to 0%, a shift marked by papers such as a 2017 study on heavy-actinide hexahalides, cited about 7 times. Similarly, the Uranium Extraction community, which also treats fermium as a minor presence, declined from 7.7% to 0%, anchored by a 2019 ICRP publication on radionuclide intakes, cited about 97 times. The Computational Materials Science community, where fermium is again a minor presence, also fell from 7.7% to 0%, with a 2017 paper on fermium monopnictides cited about 5 times. A small remainder of other research communities holds about 9% of the recent literature, a share that has remained steady.
For a deeper look at the element's current standing, see the Last 12 Months or Executive Brief reports.
What changed in the past year: new papers, shifting applications, emerging collaborators. See the momentum over a shorter window than the decade view.
Personal →See recent trends — Personal.
A by-topic status read of what changed and what's new — built for decision-makers, not search engines. Citation clusters, emerging applications, and the papers that matter most.
Professional →See the executive read — Professional.
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Showing Fermium's three strongest connections. Personal opens the slider and the whole 118-element graph.