Subfield · Software
Most cited papers in Software
What are the most cited papers in Software?
The most cited paper in Software is "Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software" (Erich Gamma, Richard F. Helm, Ralph E. Johnson et al., 1994), with 21,853 citations. Next come "Primer3—new capabilities and interfaces" (10,027) and "Statecharts: a visual formalism for complex systems" (6,762).
Showing 50 of 100 papers. Every paper with more than 1,166 citations is listed.
| # | Paper | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software Erich Gamma, Richard F. Helm, Ralph E. Johnson et al. | 1994 | 21,853 |
| 2 | Primer3—new capabilities and interfaces Andreas Untergasser, Ioana Cutcutache, Triinu Kõressaar et al. · Nucleic Acids Research | 21 Jun 2012 | 10,027 |
| 3 | Statecharts: a visual formalism for complex systems David Harel · Science of Computer Programming | Jun 1987 | 6,762 |
| 4 | A theory of timed automata Rajeev Alur, David L. Dill · Theoretical Computer Science | Apr 1994 | 6,524 |
| 5 | PEAR: a fast and accurate Illumina Paired-End reAd mergeR Jiajie Zhang, Kassian Kobert, Tomáš Flouri et al. · Bioinformatics | 18 Oct 2013 | 4,970 |
| 6 | UCSF ChimeraX : Tools for structure building and analysis Elaine C. Meng, Thomas D. Goddard, Eric F. Pettersen et al. · Protein Science | 29 Sep 2023 | 4,712 |
| 7 | The Unified Modeling Language reference manual James E. Rumbaugh, Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson · CERN Document Server (European Organization for Nuclear Research) | 1999 | 4,185 |
| 8 | The model checker SPIN Gerard J. Holzmann · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | May 1997 | 3,802 |
| 9 | The Unified Software Development Process Ivar Jacobson, Grady Booch, James E. Rumbaugh · CERN Document Server (European Organization for Nuclear Research) | 1999 | 3,395 |
| 10 | A Temporal Logic of Nested Calls and Returns Rajeev Alur, Kousha Etessami, P. Madhusudan · Lecture notes in computer science | 2004 | 3,339 |
| 11 | Program Slicing Mark Weiser · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | Jul 1984 | 3,217 |
| 12 | Pin Chi-Keung Luk, Robert S. Cohn, Robert Muth et al. · ACM SIGPLAN Notices | 12 Jun 2005 | 3,209 |
| 13 | Haykin, Simon. Neural networks: A comprehensive foundation, Prentice Hall, Inc. Segunda Edición, 1999 Jesús Figueroa Nazuno · Computación y Sistemas | 2000 | 3,188 |
| 14 | The String-to-String Correction Problem Robert A. Wagner, Michael J. Fischer · Journal of the ACM | 1974 | 3,081 |
| 15 | Symbolic execution and program testing James C. King · Communications of the ACM | Jul 1976 | 3,043 |
| 16 | Symbolic model checking Emma L. Clarke, K. McMillan, Sérgio Campos et al. · Lecture notes in computer science | 1996 | 2,856 |
| 17 | Symbolic model checking: 1020 States and beyond Jerry R. Burch, E. M. Clarke, Kenneth L. McMillan et al. · Information and Computation | Jun 1992 | 2,711 |
| 18 | KLEE: unassisted and automatic generation of high-coverage tests for complex systems programs Cristian Cadar, Daniel Dunbar, Dawson Engler | 8 Dec 2008 | 2,669 |
| 19 | Factorial Sampling Plans for Preliminary Computational Experiments Max D. Morris · Technometrics | May 1991 | 2,654 |
| 20 | Probability and Statistics With Reliability, Queuing, and Computer Science Applications. W. A. Thompson, Kishor Shridharbhai Trivedi · Journal of the American Statistical Association | Dec 1983 | 2,613 |
| 21 | Generative Programming: Methods, Tools, and Applications Krzysztof Czarnecki, Ulrich W. Eisenecker | 16 Jun 2000 | 2,549 |
| 22 | PRISM 4.0: Verification of Probabilistic Real-Time Systems Marta Kwiatkowska, Gethin Norman, David A. Parker · Lecture notes in computer science | 2011 | 2,390 |
| 23 | Drebin: Effective and Explainable Detection of Android Malware in Your Pocket Daniel J. Arp, Michael Spreitzenbarth, Malte Hübner et al. | 2014 | 2,347 |
| 24 | Pin Chi-Keung Luk, Robert S. Cohn, Robert Muth et al. | 12 Jun 2005 | 2,306 |
| 25 | Efficiently computing static single assignment form and the control dependence graph Ron K. Cytron, Jeanne Ferrante, Barry K. Rosen et al. · ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems | Oct 1991 | 2,259 |
| 26 | Design and synthesis of synchronization skeletons using branching time temporal logic Edmund M. Clarke, E. Allen Emerson · Lecture notes in computer science | 19 Nov 2005 | 2,198 |
| 27 | Uppaal in a nutshell Kim G. Larsen, Paul Pettersson, Wang Yi · International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer | Dec 1997 | 2,186 |
| 28 | Dissecting Android Malware: Characterization and Evolution Yajin Zhou, Xuxian Jiang | May 2012 | 2,164 |
| 29 | Symbolic Model Checking without BDDs Armin Biere, Alessandro Cimatti, Edmund M. Clarke et al. · Lecture notes in computer science | 1999 | 2,156 |
| 30 | Synthesis and Applications of RuCl2(CHR‘)(PR3)2: The Influence of the Alkylidene Moiety on Metathesis Activity Peter A. Schwab, Robert Howard Grubbs, Joseph W. Ziller · Journal of the American Chemical Society | 1996 | 2,106 |
| 31 | Hints on Test Data Selection: Help for the Practicing Programmer Richard A. DeMillo, R.J. Lipton, Frederick G. Sayward · Computer | Apr 1978 | 2,082 |
| 32 | Refactoring improving the design of existing code Mauricio A. Saca | Nov 2017 | 2,080 |
| 33 | DART Patrice Godefroid, Nils Klarlund, Koushik Sen · ACM SIGPLAN Notices | 12 Jun 2005 | 2,077 |
| 34 | Goal-directed requirements acquisition Anne Dardenne, Axel van Lamsweerde, Stephen F. Fickas · Science of Computer Programming | Apr 1993 | 1,979 |
| 35 | OR-Library: Distributing Test Problems by Electronic Mail J. E. Beasley · Journal of the Operational Research Society | Nov 1990 | 1,912 |
| 36 | The algorithmic analysis of hybrid systems Rajeev Alur, Costas Courcoubetis, Nicolas Halbwachs et al. · Theoretical Computer Science | Feb 1995 | 1,889 |
| 37 | Time-Dependent Error-Detection Rate Model for Software Reliability and Other Performance Measures Amrit L. Goel, Kazu Okumoto · IEEE Transactions on Reliability | Aug 1979 | 1,852 |
| 38 | The De-scription of Technical Objects Madeleine Akrich · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) | 1992 | 1,800 |
| 39 | Model Driven Engineering Stuart Kent · Lecture notes in computer science | 2002 | 1,783 |
| 40 | An Analysis and Survey of the Development of Mutation Testing Yue Jia, Mark Harman · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | 23 Jun 2010 | 1,746 |
| 41 | Verification and validation of simulation models Robert G. Sargent · Journal of Simulation | 7 Dec 2012 | 1,740 |
| 42 | CCFinder: a multilinguistic token-based code clone detection system for large scale source code T. Kamiya, Shinya Kusumoto, Koji Inoue · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | Jul 2002 | 1,737 |
| 43 | When and how to develop domain-specific languages Marjan Mernik, Jan Heering, Anthony M. Sloane · ACM Computing Surveys | Dec 2005 | 1,735 |
| 44 | Designing the user interface strategies for effective human-computer interaction Ben Shneiderman · ACM SIGBIO Newsletter | Mar 1987 | 1,733 |
| 45 | A validation of object-oriented design metrics as quality indicators Victor Robert Basili, Lionel Briand, Walcélio L. Melo · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering | Oct 1996 | 1,731 |
| 46 | Goal-oriented requirements engineering: a guided tour Axel van Lamsweerde | 13 Nov 2002 | 1,725 |
| 47 | Counterexample-Guided Abstraction Refinement Edmund M. Clarke, Orna Grümberg, Somesh Jha et al. · Lecture notes in computer science | 2000 | 1,707 |
| 48 | The Jalview Java alignment editor Michele E. Clamp, James A. Cuff, Stephen M. J. Searle et al. · Bioinformatics | 22 Jan 2004 | 1,680 |
| 49 | Software Reliability: Measurement, Prediction, Application Donald Musa, Anthony Iannino, Kazuhira Okumoto | May 1987 | 1,676 |
| 50 | Safeware: System Safety and Computers Nancy G. Leveson · CERN Document Server (European Organization for Nuclear Research) | 1995 | 1,663 |
Citations are OpenAlex's own counts, from its 2026-09-23 snapshot, so the ranking can differ from Google Scholar or Web of Science. A paper is listed for a field when OpenAlex files it under one of the field's topics; retracted papers and papers whose citation count cannot be traced to citing works are left out, and a preprint and the article it became are shown once. Release dates are OpenAlex's: where a source gave only a month or a year, that is what is shown. How the lists are chosen.