As of 2026-09-11 · the last 10 years
Research intensity has fallen to about 11% of the element's own all-time peak, a level reached after a steady decline from 26% in 2016, with the all-time peak occurring in 2009, outside this window.
Research intensity ran from about 26% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 11% in 2026 — a steady decline, and the all-time peak (2009) lies before this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements held steady. Among the 118 elements, rutherfordium has one of the smaller research literatures of any element.
The number of papers involving the element fell from about 26 in 2016 to about 13 in 2025 (0.5x). 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 the Synthesis and Decay of Superheavy Elements and Heavy-Ion Collision Physics. Rutherfordium is a minor presence in this much larger community, accounting for about 1% of its papers, yet it represents the entirety of rutherfordium’s recent research share. This community’s share of the element’s work rose from about 86% in the first half of the window to 100% in the current period. The work here focuses on the element’s nuclear properties and chemical behavior, with distinctive phrases including "element 104" and "electronic structure." A key paper in this area is "Validating Vacuum Chromatography with Subsecond Radioisotopes of Hg for Superheavy Element Chemistry" (2026), cited once, which builds on earlier foundational work such as "Production of unknown neutron-rich isotopes in U 238 + U 238 collisions at near-barrier energy" (2016), cited about 57 times.
Two other communities, Silicon-Germanium Quantum Devices and Laser-Structured Surfaces, and Actinide Chemistry and Nuclear Fuel Materials, held steady but negligible shares of the element’s research, each dropping from about 5% to 0% in the current period. The former includes a 2020 study on rutherfordium nanoparticles for cancer treatment, cited about 31 times, while the latter features a 2019 paper on group IV metal coordination, cited about 18 times. The remainder of the element’s research, comprising other small communities, also declined to zero share in the current period.
The window’s most-cited paper, "Production of unknown neutron-rich isotopes in U 238 + U 238 collisions at near-barrier energy" (2016), cited about 57 times, belongs to the dominant synthesis and decay community and underscores the element’s continued relevance in nuclear physics.
For a deeper look at rutherfordium’s current standing, see the element’s Last 12 Months and 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.
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