Most-cited papers published in 2021

Papers the tracked finance, accounting, economics, management, marketing, information systems, tourism and hospitality, operations research and AI journals published in 2021, ranked by the citations OpenAlex counts for them so far. Citation counts are the ones OpenAlex reports, read again every day for the last year's papers, every week for the two years before and every month for older ones. Also as Markdown.

Most-cited papers: Past three years · Since October 2016 · 2025 · 2024 · 2023 · 2022 · 2021 · 2020 · 2019 · 2018 · 2017

Key findings#

The most-cited paper the tracked journals published in 2021 is “How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines” (Journal of Business Research), with 14,276 citations.
In finance, the most-cited was “Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG and CSR research in corporate finance” (Journal of Corporate Finance), with 2,878 citations.
In accounting, the most-cited was “Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review” (Review of Accounting Studies), with 1,908 citations.
In economics, the most-cited was “Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing” (Journal of Econometrics), with 8,014 citations.
In management, the most-cited was “How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines” (Journal of Business Research), with 14,276 citations.
In marketing, the most-cited was “Understanding anthropomorphism in service provision: a meta-analysis of physical robots, chatbots, and other AI” (Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science), with 1,192 citations.
In information systems, the most-cited was “Machine learning and deep learning” (Electronic Markets), with 2,957 citations.
In tourism and hospitality, the most-cited was “Understanding and managing the threat of common method bias: Detection, prevention and control” (Tourism Management), with 1,687 citations.
In operations research, the most-cited was “Aquila Optimizer: A novel meta-heuristic optimization algorithm” (Computers & Industrial Engineering), with 2,224 citations.
In AI, the most-cited was “Review of deep learning: concepts, CNN architectures, challenges, applications, future directions” (Journal Of Big Data), with 7,886 citations.

All journals#

The 25 most-cited papers published in 2021, all tracked journals
#	Citations	Per month	Title	Journal	Published	Authors
1	14,276	217.9	How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines	Journal of Business Research	2021-05-14	Naveen Donthu, Satish Kumar, Debmalya Mukherjee et al.
2	8,014	124.1	Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing	Journal of Econometrics	2021-06-12	Andrew Goodman-Bacon
3	7,886	117.8	Review of deep learning: concepts, CNN architectures, challenges, applications, future directions	Journal Of Big Data	2021-03-31	Laith Alzubaidi, Jinglan Zhang, Amjad J. Humaidi et al.
4	5,262	81.4	A Survey of Convolutional Neural Networks: Analysis, Applications, and Prospects	IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems	2021-06-10	Zewen Li, Fan Liu, Wenjie Yang et al.
5	3,925	58.4	Knowledge Distillation: A Survey	International Journal of Computer Vision	2021-03-22	Jianping Gou, Baosheng Yu, Stephen J. Maybank et al.
6	3,794	54.3	Image Segmentation Using Deep Learning: A Survey	IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence	2021-01-01	Shervin Minaee, Yuri Y. Boykov, Fatih Porikli et al.
7	3,636	54.0	Learning nonlinear operators via DeepONet based on the universal approximation theorem of operators	Nature Machine Intelligence	2021-03-18	Lu Lu, Pengzhan Jin, Guofei Pang et al.
8	3,239	50.3	Temporal Fusion Transformers for interpretable multi-horizon time series forecasting	International Journal of Forecasting	2021-06-16	Bryan Y. Lim, Sercan Ö. Arık, Nicolas Loeff et al.
9	2,957	44.3	Machine learning and deep learning	Electronic Markets	2021-04-08	Christian Janiesch, Patrick Zschech, Kai Heinrich
10	2,940	44.5	A Survey on Knowledge Graphs: Representation, Acquisition, and Applications	IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems	2021-04-26	Shaoxiong Ji, Shirui Pan, Erik Cambria et al.
11	2,904	43.4	A Survey on Multi-Task Learning	IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering	2021-03-31	Yu Zhang, Qiang Yang
12	2,878	41.8	Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG and CSR research in corporate finance	Journal of Corporate Finance	2021-01-30	Stuart Gillan, Andrew Koch, Laura T. Starks
13	2,769	42.5	A review of uncertainty quantification in deep learning: Techniques, applications and challenges	Information Fusion	2021-05-23	Moloud Abdar, Farhad Pourpanah, Sadiq Hussain et al.
14	2,629	38.2	Corporate green bonds	Journal of Financial Economics	2021-01-31	Caroline Flammer
15	2,485	39.7	CB-SEM vs PLS-SEM methods for research in social sciences and technology forecasting	Technological Forecasting and Social Change	2021-08-09	Ganesh Dash, Justin Paul
16	2,325	36.5	ProtTrans: Toward Understanding the Language of Life Through Self-Supervised Learning	IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence	2021-07-07	Ahmed Elnaggar, Michael Heinzinger, Christian Dallago et al.
17	2,302	33.3	Deep Learning for Person Re-Identification: A Survey and Outlook	IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence	2021-01-26	Mang Ye, Jianbing Shen, Gaojie Lin et al.
18	2,248	32.7	Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA): Guidelines for research practice in Information Systems and marketing	International Journal of Information Management	2021-02-06	Ilias O. Pappas, Arch George Woodside
19	2,224	33.1	Aquila Optimizer: A novel meta-heuristic optimization algorithm	Computers & Industrial Engineering	2021-03-23	Laith Abualigah, Dalia Yousri, Mohamed Abd Elaziz et al.
20	2,167	36.7	Tabular data: Deep learning is not all you need	Information Fusion	2021-11-26	Ravid Shwartz-Ziv, Amitai Armon
21	1,908	30.3	Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review	Review of Accounting Studies	2021-07-29	Hans Bonde Christensen, Luzi Hail, Christian Leuz
22	1,899	27.4	A survey on federated learning	Knowledge-Based Systems	2021-01-21	Chen Bo Calvin Zhang, Yu Xie, Hang Bai et al.
23	1,858	30.1	FairMOT: On the Fairness of Detection and Re-identification in Multiple Object Tracking	International Journal of Computer Vision	2021-09-03	Yifu Zhang, Chunyu Wang, Xinggang Wang et al.
24	1,846	26.4	Self-supervised Learning: Generative or Contrastive	IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering	2021-01-01	Xiao Liu, Fanjin Zhang, Zhenyu Hou et al.
25	1,827	26.9	Aleatoric and epistemic uncertainty in machine learning: an introduction to concepts and methods	Machine Learning	2021-03-01	Eyke Hüllermeier, Willem Waegeman

Finance# Dashboard →

Most-cited finance papers published in 2021
#	Citations	Per month	Title	Journal	Published	Authors
1	2,878	41.8	Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG and CSR research in corporate finance	Journal of Corporate Finance	2021-01-30	Stuart Gillan, Andrew Koch, Laura T. Starks
2	2,629	38.2	Corporate green bonds	Journal of Financial Economics	2021-01-31	Caroline Flammer
3	1,341	21.9	Sustainable investing with ESG rating uncertainty	Journal of Financial Economics	2021-09-17	Doron Avramov, Si Cheng, Abraham Lioui et al.
4	723	11.7	Artificial intelligence and machine learning in finance: Identifying foundations, themes, and research clusters from bibliometric analysis	Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance	2021-08-31	John W. Goodell, Satish Kumar, Weng Marc Lim et al.
5	707	11.3	What do you think about climate finance?	Journal of Financial Economics	2021-08-08	Johannes Stroebel, Jeffrey A. Wurgler
6	656	10.1	Consumer-lending discrimination in the FinTech Era	Journal of Financial Economics	2021-05-28	Robert P. Bartlett, Adair Morse, Richard Stanton et al.
7	629	10.8	Who is financing corporate green innovation?	International Review of Economics & Finance	2021-12-16	Xiaojian Xiang, Chuanjiang Liu, Mian Yang
8	624	9.7	Real effects of climate policy: Financial constraints and spillovers	Journal of Financial Economics	2021-06-23	Söhnke M. Bartram, Kewei Hou, Sehoon Kim
9	613	9.4	The Big Three and corporate carbon emissions around the world	Journal of Financial Economics	2021-05-24	José Azar, Miguel Duro, Igor Kadach et al.
10	605	9.0	The role of green finance in reducing CO2 emissions: An empirical analysis	Borsa Istanbul Review	2021-03-23	Muhammad Saeed Meo, Mohd Zaini Abd Karim

Accounting# Dashboard →

Most-cited accounting papers published in 2021
#	Citations	Per month	Title	Journal	Published	Authors
1	1,908	30.3	Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review	Review of Accounting Studies	2021-07-29	Hans Bonde Christensen, Luzi Hail, Christian Leuz
2	430	6.4	Connecting the COVID-19 pandemic, environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing and calls for ‘harmonisation’ of sustainability reporting	Critical Perspectives on Accounting	2021-03-23	Carol A. Adams, Subhash Asanga Abhayawansa
3	424	6.8	The impact of carbon disclosure mandates on emissions and financial operating performance	Review of Accounting Studies	2021-08-05	Benedikt Downar, Jürgen Ernstberger, Stefan J. Reichelstein et al.
4	405	6.6	Stock market reactions to adverse ESG disclosure via media channels	The British Accounting Review	2021-09-14	Jin Boon Wong, Qin Zhang
5	261	3.7	Corporate governance and sustainability: a review of the existing literature	Journal of Management & Governance	2021-01-03	Valeria Naciti, Fabrizio Césaroni, Luisa Pulejo
6	220	3.4	Does corporate eco-innovation affect stock price crash risk?	The British Accounting Review	2021-06-24	Rashid Zaman, Nader Atawnah, Muhammad Haseeb et al.
7	216	3.2	The impact of climate risk on earnings management: International evidence	Journal of Accounting and Public Policy	2021-02-23	Rong Ding, Mingzhi Liu, Tingting Wang et al.
8	196	2.8	The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Information in Supply-Chain Contracting: Evidence from the Expansion of CSR Rating Coverage	Journal of Accounting and Economics	2021-01-01	Alper Darendeli, Peter Fiechter, Jörg-Markus Hitz et al.
9	184	2.7	Gone with the wind: An externality of earnings pressure	Journal of Accounting and Economics	2021-03-18	Zheng Liu, Hongtao Shen, Michael Welker et al.
10	168	2.5	The influence of board composition on environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure of Thai listed companies	International Journal of Disclosure and Governance	2021-03-24	Muttanachai Suttipun

Economics# Dashboard →

Most-cited economics papers published in 2021
#	Citations	Per month	Title	Journal	Published	Authors
1	8,014	124.1	Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing	Journal of Econometrics	2021-06-12	Andrew Goodman-Bacon
2	3,239	50.3	Temporal Fusion Transformers for interpretable multi-horizon time series forecasting	International Journal of Forecasting	2021-06-16	Bryan Y. Lim, Sercan Ö. Arık, Nicolas Loeff et al.
3	1,239	18.6	Demand for green finance: Resolving financing constraints on green innovation in China	Energy Policy	2021-04-08	Chin‐Hsien Yu, Xiuqin Wu, Dayong Zhang et al.
4	1,189	17.7	Environmental regulation, green technology innovation, and industrial structure upgrading: The road to the green transformation of Chinese cities	Energy Economics	2021-03-26	Kerui Du, Yuanyuan Cheng, Xin Yao
5	933	13.8	Digitalization and energy: How does internet development affect China's energy consumption?	Energy Economics	2021-03-18	Siyu Ren, Yu Hao, Lu Xu et al.
6	873	13.2	Heterogeneous green innovations and carbon emission performance: Evidence at China's city level	Energy Economics	2021-04-28	Le Emily Xu, Meiting Fan, Lili Yang et al.
7	858	12.4	Adaptation interventions and their effect on vulnerability in developing countries: Help, hindrance or irrelevance?	World Development	2021-01-22	Siri Eriksen, E. Lisa F. Schipper, Morgan Scoville-Simonds et al.
8	790	11.4	Can the green credit policy stimulate green innovation in heavily polluting enterprises? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China	Energy Economics	2021-01-24	Guoqiang Hu, Xiaoqi Wang, Yu Wang
9	785	11.7	Public spending and green economic growth in BRI region: Mediating role of green finance	Energy Policy	2021-03-31	Dongyang Zhang, Muhammad Mohsin, Abdul Khaliq Rasheed et al.
10	773	11.5	Green technology innovation and financial development: Do environmental regulation and innovation output matter?	Energy Economics	2021-03-18	Chengchao Lv, Changhua Shao, Chien‐Chiang Lee

Management# Dashboard →

Most-cited management papers published in 2021
#	Citations	Per month	Title	Journal	Published	Authors
1	14,276	217.9	How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines	Journal of Business Research	2021-05-14	Naveen Donthu, Satish Kumar, Debmalya Mukherjee et al.
2	2,485	39.7	CB-SEM vs PLS-SEM methods for research in social sciences and technology forecasting	Technological Forecasting and Social Change	2021-08-09	Ganesh Dash, Justin Paul
3	1,155	19.1	Digital economy: An innovation driver for total factor productivity	Journal of Business Research	2021-10-11	Wenrong Pan, Tao Xie, Zhuwang Wang et al.
4	1,042	17.7	The digital divide: A review and future research agenda	Technological Forecasting and Social Change	2021-11-27	Sophie Lythreatis, Sanjay Kumar Singh, Abdul-Nasser El-Kassar
5	944	15.1	COVID-19 and digitalization: The great acceleration	Journal of Business Research	2021-08-10	Joseph Amankwah‐Amoah, Zaheer Khan, Geoffrey Wood et al.
6	748	11.5	Understanding AI adoption in manufacturing and production firms using an integrated TAM-TOE model	Technological Forecasting and Social Change	2021-05-23	Sheshadri Chatterjee, Nripendra Pratap Rana, Yogesh Kumar Dwivedi et al.
7	702	10.1	The impact of big data analytics and artificial intelligence on green supply chain process integration and hospital environmental performance	Technological Forecasting and Social Change	2021-01-07	Smaïl Benzidia, Naouel Makaoui, Omar Bentahar
8	694	10.3	Do carbon emission trading schemes stimulate green innovation in enterprises? Evidence from China	Technological Forecasting and Social Change	2021-03-21	Zhongfei Chen, Xiao Zhang, Fanglin Chen
9	693	10.7	Trust me, trust me not: A nuanced view of influencer marketing on social media	Journal of Business Research	2021-05-29	Do Yeon Kim, Hye-Young Kim
10	666	10.1	Understanding influencer marketing: The role of congruence between influencers, products and consumers	Journal of Business Research	2021-04-22	Daniel Belanche, Luis V. Casaló, Marta Flavián et al.

Marketing# Dashboard →

Most-cited marketing papers published in 2021
#	Citations	Per month	Title	Journal	Published	Authors
1	1,192	17.1	Understanding anthropomorphism in service provision: a meta-analysis of physical robots, chatbots, and other AI	Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science	2021-01-06	Markus Blut, Cheng Wang, Nancy V. Wünderlich et al.
2	531	7.9	The effect of COVID-19 on consumer shopping behaviour: Generational cohort perspective	Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services	2021-03-14	Ludvík Eger, Lenka Komárková, Dana Egerová et al.
3	481	7.7	The effects of service quality, perceived value and trust in home delivery service personnel on customer satisfaction: Evidence from a developing country	Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services	2021-08-16	Md. Uzir Hossain Uzir, Hussam Al Halbusi, Ramayah Thurasamy et al.
4	458	6.8	A Framework for Collaborative Artificial Intelligence in Marketing	Journal of Retailing	2021-03-08	Ming‐Hui Huang, Roland T. Rust
5	402	5.9	How attachment affects user stickiness on live streaming platforms: A socio-technical approach perspective	Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services	2021-02-11	You Li, Xiaolin Li, Jiali Cai
6	375	6.2	Way to success: Understanding top streamer's popularity and influence from the perspective of source characteristics	Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services	2021-10-07	Yuanyuan Guo, Kexin Zhang, Chaoyou Wang
7	370	5.6	Online consumer resilience during a pandemic: An exploratory study of e-commerce behavior before, during and after a COVID-19 lockdown	Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services	2021-04-19	Cameron H. Guthrie, Samuel Fosso Wamba, Jean Brice Arnaud
8	370	6.0	The impact of online celebrity in livestreaming E-commerce on purchase intention from the perspective of emotional contagion	Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services	2021-08-30	Lu Meng, Shen Duan, Yijun Zhao et al.
9	342	5.0	How artificial intelligence will affect the future of retailing	Journal of Retailing	2021-02-04	Abhijit Guha, Dhruv Grewal, Praveen K. Kopalle et al.
10	341	5.5	Interactivity, Inspiration, and Perceived Usefulness! How retailers’ AR-apps improve consumer engagement through flow	Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services	2021-09-09	Vahideh Arghashi, Cenk Yüksel

Information Systems# Dashboard →

Most-cited information systems papers published in 2021
#	Citations	Per month	Title	Journal	Published	Authors
1	2,957	44.3	Machine learning and deep learning	Electronic Markets	2021-04-08	Christian Janiesch, Patrick Zschech, Kai Heinrich
2	2,248	32.7	Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA): Guidelines for research practice in Information Systems and marketing	International Journal of Information Management	2021-02-06	Ilias O. Pappas, Arch George Woodside
3	1,699	24.6	Artificial intelligence capability: Conceptualization, measurement calibration, and empirical study on its impact on organizational creativity and firm performance	Information & Management	2021-01-24	Patrick Mikalef, Manjul Gupta
4	1,119	19.1	Digital transformation in business and management research: An overview of the current status quo	International Journal of Information Management	2021-12-15	Sascha Kraus, Susanne Durst, João J. Ferreira et al.
5	1,042	16.8	Artificial Intelligence and Business Value: a Literature Review	Information Systems Frontiers	2021-08-25	Ida Merete Enholm, Emmanouil Papagiannidis, Patrick Mikalef et al.
6	931	13.6	Digital Twin: Generalization, characterization and implementation	Decision Support Systems	2021-02-17	Eric VanDerHorn, Sankaran Mahadevan
7	827	13.1	Blockchain technology for bridging trust, traceability and transparency in circular supply chain	Information & Management	2021-07-27	Piera Centobelli, Roberto Cerchione, Pasquale Del Vecchio et al.
8	791	11.8	Implications of the use of artificial intelligence in public governance: A systematic literature review and a research agenda	Government Information Quarterly	2021-03-23	Anneke Zuiderwijk, Yu‐Che Chen, Fadi Salem
9	781	12.3	Artificial intelligence in information systems research: A systematic literature review and research agenda	International Journal of Information Management	2021-07-08	Christopher Collins, Denis Dennehy, Kieran Conboy et al.
10	780	11.3	Generative adversarial network: An overview of theory and applications	International Journal of Information Management Data Insights	2021-01-27	Alankrita Aggarwal, Mamta Mittal, Gopi Battineni

Tourism and Hospitality# Dashboard →

Most-cited tourism and hospitality papers published in 2021
#	Citations	Per month	Title	Journal	Published	Authors
1	1,687	25.4	Understanding and managing the threat of common method bias: Detection, prevention and control	Tourism Management	2021-04-16	Florian Köck, Adiyukh Berbekova, A. George Assaf
2	488	7.9	Top management green commitment and green intellectual capital as enablers of hotel environmental performance: The mediating role of green human resource management	Tourism Management	2021-09-11	Kavitha Haldorai, Woo Gon Kim, R.L. Fernando Garcia
3	475	7.6	Green HRM, environmental awareness and green behaviors: The moderating role of servant leadership	Tourism Management	2021-08-15	Mahlagha Darvishmotevali, Levent Altınay
4	404	5.8	Forecasting tourism recovery amid COVID-19	Annals of Tourism Research	2021-01-18	Hanyuan Zhang, Haiyan Song, Long Wen et al.
5	403	6.0	Rural tourism: A systematic literature review on definitions and challenges	Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management	2021-03-21	Putu Devi Rosalina, Karine Dupré, Wang Ying
6	399	6.1	Understanding memorable tourism experiences and behavioural intentions of heritage tourists	Journal of Destination Marketing & Management	2021-05-25	Seyyed Mostafa Rasoolimanesh, Siamak Seyfi, C. Michael Hall et al.
7	366	5.4	Effects of rural revitalization on rural tourism	Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management	2021-03-02	Jun Yang, Ruxin Yang, Ming‐Hsiang Chen et al.
8	355	5.2	Crisis management research (1985–2020) in the hospitality and tourism industry: A review and research agenda	Tourism Management	2021-03-03	Tai Ming Wut, Jing Bill Xu, Shun-Mun Helen Wong
9	349	5.2	A systematic review of AI technology-based service encounters: Implications for hospitality and tourism operations	International Journal of Hospitality Management	2021-04-06	Minglong Li, Dexiang Yin, Hailian Qiu et al.
10	332	4.8	Do job insecurity, anxiety and depression caused by the COVID-19 pandemic influence hotel employees’ self-rated task performance? The moderating role of employee resilience	International Journal of Hospitality Management	2021-01-28	Teresa Aguiar-Quintana, Thi Hong Hai Nguyen, Yasmina Araujo Cabrera et al.

Operations Research# Dashboard →

Most-cited operations research papers published in 2021
#	Citations	Per month	Title	Journal	Published	Authors
1	2,224	33.1	Aquila Optimizer: A novel meta-heuristic optimization algorithm	Computers & Industrial Engineering	2021-03-23	Laith Abualigah, Dalia Yousri, Mohamed Abd Elaziz et al.
2	1,447	22.2	African vultures optimization algorithm: A new nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithm for global optimization problems	Computers & Industrial Engineering	2021-05-21	Benyamın Abdollahzadeh, Farhad Soleimanian Gharehchopogh, Seyedali Mirjalili
3	994	14.5	COVID-19 pandemic related supply chain studies: A systematic review	Transportation Research Part E Logistics and Transportation Review	2021-02-15	Priyabrata Chowdhury, Sanjoy Kumar Paul, Shahriar Kaisar et al.
4	796	11.6	Artificial intelligence-driven innovation for enhancing supply chain resilience and performance under the effect of supply chain dynamism: an empirical investigation	Annals of Operations Research	2021-02-03	Amine Belhadi, Venkatesh Mani, Sachin Kamble et al.
5	745	11.5	Reinforcement learning for combinatorial optimization: A survey	Computers & Operations Research	2021-05-28	Nina Mazyavkina, Sergey Sviridov, Sergei Ivanov et al.
6	686	9.9	Planning and control of autonomous mobile robots for intralogistics: Literature review and research agenda	European Journal of Operational Research	2021-01-18	Giuseppe Ismael Fragapane, René B.M. de Koster, Fabio Sgarbossa et al.
7	685	9.9	Adoption and use of AI tools: a research agenda grounded in UTAUT	Annals of Operations Research	2021-01-19	Viswanath Venkatesh
8	683	9.8	Supply chain disruptions and resilience: a major review and future research agenda	Annals of Operations Research	2021-01-08	Korina Katsaliaki, Panagiota Galetsi⁠, Sameer Kumar
9	585	10.1	TOPSIS and Modified TOPSIS: A comparative analysis	Decision Analytics Journal	2021-12-24	Subrata Chakraborty
10	526	8.4	Artificial intelligence applications in supply chain management	International Journal of Production Economics	2021-08-05	Mehrdokht Pournader, ‬Hadi Ghaderi, Amir Hassanzadegan et al.

AI# Dashboard →

Most-cited AI papers published in 2021
#	Citations	Per month	Title	Journal	Published	Authors
1	7,886	117.8	Review of deep learning: concepts, CNN architectures, challenges, applications, future directions	Journal Of Big Data	2021-03-31	Laith Alzubaidi, Jinglan Zhang, Amjad J. Humaidi et al.
2	5,262	81.4	A Survey of Convolutional Neural Networks: Analysis, Applications, and Prospects	IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems	2021-06-10	Zewen Li, Fan Liu, Wenjie Yang et al.
3	3,925	58.4	Knowledge Distillation: A Survey	International Journal of Computer Vision	2021-03-22	Jianping Gou, Baosheng Yu, Stephen J. Maybank et al.
4	3,794	54.3	Image Segmentation Using Deep Learning: A Survey	IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence	2021-01-01	Shervin Minaee, Yuri Y. Boykov, Fatih Porikli et al.
5	3,636	54.0	Learning nonlinear operators via DeepONet based on the universal approximation theorem of operators	Nature Machine Intelligence	2021-03-18	Lu Lu, Pengzhan Jin, Guofei Pang et al.
6	2,940	44.5	A Survey on Knowledge Graphs: Representation, Acquisition, and Applications	IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems	2021-04-26	Shaoxiong Ji, Shirui Pan, Erik Cambria et al.
7	2,904	43.4	A Survey on Multi-Task Learning	IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering	2021-03-31	Yu Zhang, Qiang Yang
8	2,769	42.5	A review of uncertainty quantification in deep learning: Techniques, applications and challenges	Information Fusion	2021-05-23	Moloud Abdar, Farhad Pourpanah, Sadiq Hussain et al.
9	2,325	36.5	ProtTrans: Toward Understanding the Language of Life Through Self-Supervised Learning	IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence	2021-07-07	Ahmed Elnaggar, Michael Heinzinger, Christian Dallago et al.
10	2,302	33.3	Deep Learning for Person Re-Identification: A Survey and Outlook	IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence	2021-01-26	Mang Ye, Jianbing Shen, Gaojie Lin et al.

Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Most-cited papers published in 2021. Journal Research Rankings. Retrieved October 29, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/cited/2021

@misc{scholar4ai-rankings-cited-2021,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Most-cited papers published in 2021},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/cited/2021}},
  urldate = {2026-10-29},
  note = {Journal Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}

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