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Magnets and superconductors

Permanent magnets and superconducting materials for motors, power and research machines.

China leads magnets and superconductors research, with 35.0% of the 10% most cited papers published 2021–2025; the United States is second with 14.2%.

Added 14 October 2026. Its top papers were checked for relevance by AI, but its keywords and topic list have not yet been reviewed by hand.

CN
FirstChina35.0%
US
SecondUnited States14.2%
2.5×lead, by share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025

Standings

1CNChina35.0%2USUnited States14.2%3GBUnited Kingdom5.7%4INIndia4.8%5–6DEGermany4.6%5–6JPJapan4.6%7–8ITItaly2.6%7–8CHSwitzerland2.6%9NZNew Zealand2.2%10FRFrance1.7%

Share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025; 468 papers. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Year by year

About 94 papers a year. Single-year moves are noise.
010203040% 20212022202320242025 China 39.4%United States 8.6%United Kingdom 4.8%Japan 3.1%Germany 2.7%India 0.9%

Share of the 10% most cited papers published in each year. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Inside the field

Always the top 10%Pilot

Each paper sorted into one sub-area by an AI model reading its title and abstract, then credited as usual. On 200 hand-labelled papers it chose the same sub-area, or a defensible second, 92% of the time.

Sub-areaPapersFirstSecondThird
Superconducting magnet engineering (coils, quench, mechanics)100CNChina42.1%USUnited States16.2%CHSwitzerland6.8%
Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets79CNChina58.1%DEGermany8.3%JPJapan7.6%
Unconventional superconductors (nickelates, kagome, cuprates)64CNChina31.8%USUnited States31.8%DEGermany7.4%
High-temperature superconductor tapes and bulks59CNChina33.4%GBUnited Kingdom16.2%USUnited States15.7%
Rare-earth-free and other permanent magnets (incl. manufacturing)54CNChina31.5%USUnited States20.4%DEGermany7.7%
Hexaferrite magnets44INIndia39.8%CNChina7.9%SASaudi Arabia7.8%
Superconducting cables, motors, MRI and power uses42CNChina29.6%GBUnited Kingdom12.3%NZNew Zealand10.0%

Share of each sub-area's papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Earlier and recent

The same top 10%, split into 2021–2023 and 2024–2025.

FallingRising2021–20232024–2025Change
CNChina 31.7%39.1%+7.4 pts
USUnited States 17.2%10.6%−6.7 pts
GBUnited Kingdom 5.2%6.3%+1.1 pts
INIndia 6.0%3.4%−2.5 pts
DEGermany 6.2%2.7%−3.5 pts
JPJapan 5.7%3.2%−2.5 pts
ITItaly 2.7%2.6%−0.1 pts
CHSwitzerland 2.9%2.2%−0.7 pts

Greyed rows rest on fewer than five papers of credit in one period.

Share of the 10% most cited papers: 256 papers in 2021–2023, 212 in 2024–2025. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

2026 so far: a different count

Not the most cited papers: every 2026 paper matched so far (804), and a paper counts in full for each country on it. This year's papers are too new to rank by citations, so these shares cannot be compared with the ones above.

  1. CNChina47.6%of 2026 papers have an author here
  2. USUnited States7.6%of 2026 papers have an author here
  3. JPJapan7.0%of 2026 papers have an author here
  4. GBUnited Kingdom6.0%of 2026 papers have an author here
  5. ITItaly5.7%of 2026 papers have an author here

Who cites the top papers

How much more often a country's top papers are cited from home than its size predicts. Expected is the country's share of all papers in the field; the bar is the excess, in percentage points. Home citers include authors citing their own earlier work.

HomeExpectedExcess
CNChina 70.0%40.1%+29.9
USUnited States 31.1%13.3%+17.8
INIndia 40.1%3.4%+36.7

Based on up to 100 of each country's most cited single-country papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Behind the share

Institutions with the most credit

  1. 1CNLanzhou University3.8%
  2. 2CNChinese Academy of SciencesGovernment lab3.7%
  3. 3NZVictoria University of Wellington2.1%
  4. 4CNBeijing University of Technology1.8%
  5. 5CNShanghai Jiao Tong University1.7%
  6. 6USMassachusetts Institute of Technology1.6%
  7. 7JPNational Institute for Materials ScienceResearch facility1.4%
  8. 8DETechnische Universität Darmstadt1.4%
  9. 9GBUniversity of Glasgow1.3%
  10. 10CHEuropean Organization for Nuclear ResearchResearch facility1.2%

Share of the top 10%. Institutions across all 45 technologies

Who does the work

SectorAllCNUSGB
Universities66.5%
67.7%
62.3%
87.6%
Research facilities21.1%
16.9%
27.2%
3.1%
Government labs7.1%
11.3%
0.8%
6.7%
Companies4.6%
3.5%
8.2%
2.6%

Share of credit by type of institution, overall and for the three leading countries.

Across borders

36.1% of the top 10% have authors in more than one country.

  1. CNUSChina with United States23
  2. CNGBChina with United Kingdom13
  3. CHUSSwitzerland with United States11
  4. DEGBGermany with United Kingdom11
  5. CHCNSwitzerland with China10

Most frequent pairings, by number of shared papers.

The papers behind the numbers

The five most cited papers this definition catches. If one looks out of place, the definition needs work.

  1. 481citations
  2. 438citations
  3. 283citations
  4. 280citations
  5. 259citations

More in materials and manufacturing

The most technologically advanced countries, and is China ahead of the US?

How this technology is defined

A paper counts if its title or abstract matches the search below. Articles in core journals and proceedings only; retracted papers are excluded.

"permanent magnet" OR "rare-earth magnet" OR "high-temperature superconductor" OR "superconducting magnet" OR "superconducting wire" OR "NdFeB"

and its main topic in OpenAlex is one of: Superconducting Materials and Applications; Magnetic Properties of Alloys; Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism; Magnetic Properties and Synthesis of Ferrites; Iron-based superconductors research; Particle accelerators and beam dynamics. The topic check removes papers that only mention the technology.

Papers matched, 2021–2025
4,664
In the top 10%
468
In the top 1%
49
Countries with credit
58
Credit with no known country
6.0%
Every one of the 609 most cited papers was checked for relevance; 8 were left out as not about magnets and superconductors

The most cited of those left out:

  • Ab Initio Electron-Phonon Interactions in Correlated Electron Systems56 citations
  • Colloquium : Hydrodynamics and holography of charge density wave phases52 citations
  • Discrete symmetry breaking defines the Mott quartic fixed point42 citations
  • Loop currents in quantum matter37 citations
  • Particle-hole asymmetry in the dynamical spin and charge responses of corner-shared 1D cuprates33 citations
  • A comprehensive study of the structural, magnetic and optoelectronic behavior of Ni0.6Mn0.4Cr2O4 chromite for magneto optical devices16 citations
  • Tuning structural, magnetic, and antimicrobial properties of novel nanocomposites to be applied in biomedical applications15 citations
  • Assessment of plasma uniformity in the extraction region of an RF-driven negative ion source for CRAFT NNBI8 citations

Definition version 0.5, pilot. It is a plain text file: copy it, change it, rerun it.

Read the method