"Star-Wars" Forceful Influence on Scholarly Research

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Thomson Reuters

15 Dec, 2015, 14:59 GMT

Citation analysis reveals the "Star-Wars" saga's noteworthy contributions to the global scholarly research landscape

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters, is celebrating the release of the latest installment of the Star Wars© epic, The Force Awakens© by recognizing the saga's significant impact on academia, including, but not limited to:

  • Utilization of the structure of the Imperial Tie Fighter Ship© to create a molecular compound for harvesting light into energy
  • Furthering the understanding of psychological conditions such as borderline personality disorder, kleptomania, hoarding and ADHD
  • Key insights into the fan experience and the complex interactive behavior of waiting in long ticket lines

Analysts from Thomson Reuters reviewed nearly 1,000 research papers indexed within the Web of Science to identify the 10 papers that best demonstrated the sagas' influence on academia as denoted by citations, or how many times each paper was explicitly footnoted in subsequent works. Citation data serves as a key metric in gauging the visibility, significance, and interrelationship of scholarly work.

Here is the list of the selected papers ranked by their number of citations:

1

"A supramolecular Star Wars Tie Fighter Ship: Electron transfer in a self-assembled triad composed zinc naphthalocyanines and a fullerene," F. D'Souza Journal of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines, 9 (10-11): 698-705, 2005.

2

"Is Anakin Skywalker suffering from borderline personality disorder? .E. Bui, et al." Psychiatry Research, 185 (1-2): 299, 2011.

3

 "Lining Up for Star Wars tickets: Some ruminations on ethics and economics based on an internet study of behavior in queues," F.N. Brady, Journal of Business Ethics, 38: 157-65, 2002.

4

 "Whose film is it, anyway? Canonicity and authority in Star Wars fandom," J.C. Lyden, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 80 (3): 775-86, 2012.

5

 "The fall and redemption of people and systems: Potential lessons from the 'Star Wars' saga."  A.P.S. Guerrero, M.J. Jamora, Academic Psychiatry, 31 (6): 485-90, 2007.

6

"Remembering and restoring the Republic: Star Wars and Rome." M.B. Charles, Classical World, 108 (2): 281-98, 2015.

7

"Using Star Wars' supporting characters to teach about psychopathology," S.H. Friedman, R.C.W. Hall Australasian Psychiatry, 23 (4): 432-4, 2015.

8

"Luke Skywalker's Individuation," S.G. Ellerhoff, Jung Journal –Culture & Psyche, 9 (3): 44-54, 2015.

9

"Space Buddhism: The adoption of Buddhist motifs in Star Wars." C. Feichtinger, Contemporary Buddhism, 15 (1): 28-43, 2014.

10

"Star Wars, limb loss, and what it means to be human," R. Corvino, ed. by K. Allan, Disability in Science Fiction," Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 101-3, 2013.

Visit http://stateofinnovation.thomsonreuters.com/force-ful-research to view the full analysis.

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