Superconductivity and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A Challenge for Researchers in Superconductivity

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (abbreviated: SDGs) for the period 2015–2030 have now just passed the midterm, and thus the efforts of scientists in this direction should be clearly visible. A bibliometric analysis of the papers enlisted in the Clarivate Web of Science (WoS) may enlighten the efforts by researchers in the field of superconductivity. To conduct such an analysis, there are new filters added to the WoS, which classify a given paper via the microcitation topics for the various SDGs. In this contribution, we present a thorough analysis of the field of superconductivity and its applications as well as the performance of selected authors. The results obtained point directly to a big problem that the research on superconductivity is facing: The list of keywords to qualify for SDGs does not represent the field in a way it deserves as most of the papers in the field of superconductivity carry the mico citation topic “critical current density”, which is not recognized for the SDGs. This is especially visible when analyzing individual authors, especially those working at companies in the field. Thus, in view of securing the necessary recoginition and research funding, it is obvious that there must be a change to give superconductivity the role within the SDGs it deserves.