The Seminal Literature of Nanotechnology Research

A chronically weak area in research papers, reports, and reviews is the complete identification of seminal background documents that formed the building blocks for these papers. A method for systematically determining these seminal references is presented. Citation-Assisted Background (CAB) is based on the assumption that seminal documents tend to be highly cited. Application of CAB to the field of nanotechnology research is presented. While CAB is a highly systematic approach for identifying seminal references, it serves as a supplement and is not a substitute for the judgment of the authors.