Astrophysics

Swift

5,490 tracked publications and 226,035 citations from 2005–2026. Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. Launched 2004. Life-cycle cost: $456M in 2025 dollars. Active Mission Window May 1, 2005 to January 1, 2024: 4,506 publications, 297 top-10% credit.

Pointed Observatory · h-index 182 · 471 papers with 100+ citations · prime mission ended 2007

Lifetime

Scope Papers published from the first full month after science operations begin through 2 years after the mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. Methods Papers published from the first full month after science operations begin through 2 years after the prime mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. Methods Every tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. Methods

Key measures

Active Mission Window · papers May 1, 2005 to January 1, 2024
Tracked publicationsTracked publications: peer-reviewed research papers we found for the mission. The list may not be complete. Methods4,506
CitationsCitations received by the tracked publications in the selected scope. The two windowed scopes count each paper’s citations only within its citation window. Methods88,990
Mean citations per publicationMean citations: total citations divided by tracked publications in the selected scope. One blockbuster paper can lift it. Methods20
Median citations per publicationMedian citations: the middle paper’s citation count in the selected scope; half the papers have more, half fewer. A single blockbuster sways it less than the mean. Methods12
Uncited publicationsUncited publications: papers with no citations in the selected scope. Methods196 (4.3%)
Top-10% creditTop 10%: among the 10% most-cited papers from this division’s missions, ranked against papers published around the same time. A paper naming several missions is split evenly among the missions in this division that claim it, so counts can be fractional. Methods297 · 6.0% of division
Top-1% creditTop 1%: among the 1% most-cited papers from this division’s missions within the selected window. Not adjusted for publication year. A paper naming several missions is split evenly among the missions in this division that claim it, so counts can be fractional. Methods20 · 4.1% of division
Lifetime indices · every tracked publication to date, in any scope
h-indexh-index: the largest h such that h papers have at least h citations each. It only grows with time, so older missions score higher. Methods182
g-indexg-index: the largest g for which the g most-cited papers together hold at least g² citations. Like the h-index, but it lets the most-cited papers count for more. Methods289
m-index, as of October 4, 2026m-index: a mission’s h-index divided by the years since its first peer-reviewed paper. It falls every 1 January even when nothing else changes, so it belongs to the date shown; it also discounts the long operating life that larger missions paid for. Methods8.3
toritori (total research impact, from ADS): for every paper citing one of the mission’s papers, 1 divided by the citing paper’s reference count times the cited paper’s author count, summed, with self-citations removed. It favors citations from papers with short reference lists and from outside the mission’s own authors. Computed over the tracked citation graph, which can be slightly incomplete. Methods500
riqriq (research impact quotient): 1,000 times the square root of tori, divided by the years since the mission’s first paper. A rate, not a total, so it does not keep growing with age the way the h-index and tori do. Methods972

Tracked publications

  1. The Swift X-Ray Telescope

    Burrows, David N., 2005, SSRv

    2,784 citations

  2. First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole in the Center of the Milky Way

    Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, 2022, ApJ

    2,232 citations

  3. The Swift Ultra-Violet/Optical Telescope

    Roming, Peter W. A., 2005, SSRv

    2,037 citations

  4. Methods and results of an automatic analysis of a complete sample of Swift-XRT observations of GRBs

    Evans, P. A., 2009, MNRAS

    1,779 citations

  5. The Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on the SWIFT Midex Mission

    Barthelmy, Scott D., 2005, SSRv

    1,713 citations

  6. Physical Processes Shaping Gamma-Ray Burst X-Ray Afterglow Light Curves: Theoretical Implications from the Swift X-Ray Telescope Observations

    Zhang, Bing, 2006, ApJ

    1,127 citations

  7. Gamma-ray bursts

    Mészáros, P., 2006, RPPh

    1,097 citations

  8. The Spectral Energy Distribution of Fermi Bright Blazars

    Abdo, A. A., 2010, ApJ

    1,017 citations

  9. Evidence for a Canonical Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow Light Curve in the Swift XRT Data

    Nousek, J. A., 2006, ApJ

    931 citations

  10. Photometric calibration of the Swift ultraviolet/optical telescope

    Poole, T. S., 2008, MNRAS

    925 citations

  11. An online repository of Swift/XRT light curves of γ-ray bursts

    Evans, P. A., 2007, A&A

    905 citations

  12. The synthesis of the cosmic X-ray background in the Chandra and XMM-Newton era

    Gilli, R., 2007, A&A

    858 citations

  13. Calibration of X-ray absorption in our Galaxy

    Willingale, R., 2013, MNRAS

    789 citations

  14. Compact Object Modeling with the StarTrack Population Synthesis Code

    Belczynski, Krzysztof, 2008, ApJS

    761 citations

  15. Toward the Standard Population Synthesis Model of the X-Ray Background: Evolution of X-Ray Luminosity and Absorption Functions of Active Galactic Nuclei Including Compton-thick Populations

    Ueda, Yoshihiro, 2014, ApJ

    665 citations

  16. The 70 Month Swift-BAT All-sky Hard X-Ray Survey

    Baumgartner, W. H., 2013, ApJS

    587 citations

  17. BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey. V. X-Ray Properties of the Swift/BAT 70-month AGN Catalog

    Ricci, C., 2017, ApJS

    583 citations

  18. General physical properties of bright Fermi blazars

    Ghisellini, G., 2010, MNRAS

    582 citations

  19. Relativistic jet activity from the tidal disruption of a star by a massive black hole

    Burrows, D. N., 2011, Natur

    566 citations

  20. The Swift/BAT Hard X-Ray Transient Monitor

    Krimm, H. A., 2013, ApJS

    540 citations

How we found these papers

We searched NASA’s Astrophysics Data System (ADS) for peer-reviewed articles naming Swift in the title, abstract or keywords; standard filters drop articles that are not peer-reviewed and magazine pieces. SciX is ADS’s current interface.

((=abs:"Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory" OR =abs:"Swift satellite" OR =abs:"Swift observatory" OR =abs:"Swift mission" OR =abs:"Swift spacecraft" OR =abs:"Swift telescope" OR =abs:"Swift observations" OR =abs:"Swift observation" OR =abs:"Swift data" OR =abs:"Swift monitoring" OR (abs:Swift AND (abs:GRB OR =abs:"gamma-ray burst" OR =abs:"gamma-ray bursts" OR abs:BAT OR abs:XRT OR abs:UVOT OR =abs:"X-ray" OR =abs:"X-rays" OR =abs:ultraviolet OR =abs:UV OR =abs:"gamma-ray" OR =abs:"gamma-rays" OR =abs:afterglow OR =abs:afterglows) AND NOT (=abs:"swift heavy ion" OR =abs:"swift heavy ions" OR =abs:"swift ions")) OR =abs:"Burst Alert Telescope" OR (abs:UVOT AND (=abs:ultraviolet OR =abs:UV OR =abs:optical OR =abs:photometry)) OR (abs:BAT AND (=abs:"hard X-ray" OR =abs:"hard X-rays" OR abs:AGN OR abs:GRB OR =abs:"gamma-ray burst" OR =abs:"gamma-ray bursts" OR =abs:"X-ray" OR =abs:"X-rays")) OR (abs:XRT AND (abs:UVOT OR abs:BAT)) OR facility:Swift) AND collection:astronomy) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[2005-05 TO 2040-01] AND NOT bibstem:("A&R" OR "AIASJ" OR "AeAm" OR "AirSp" OR "AsNow" OR "AsUAI" OR "AvWST" OR "C&E" OR "C&T" OR "CAPJ" OR "E&S" OR "ENews" OR "IrAJ" OR "JCos" OR "JRASC" OR "LAstr" OR "MNSSA" OR "Met" OR "NewSc" OR "Orion" OR "PhT" OR "PhTea" OR "PhuZ" OR "PhyOJ" OR "PhyW" OR "PlR" OR "SciAm" OR "SpFl" OR "ZemVs")

Open in SciX

Removed after review (4)

  1. Heavy ion irradiation of crystalline water ice. Cosmic ray amorphisation cross-section and sputtering yield Laboratory study using fast ("swift") ion beams; unrelated to the Swift observatory. Decision 🤖
  2. On the possible luminescence nature of unidentified cometary emissions Names comet Swift-Tuttle; unrelated to the Swift observatory. Decision 🤖
  3. UFFO/ Lomonosov: The Payload for the Observation of Early Photons from Gamma Ray Bursts Describes the UFFO payload on the Lomonosov satellite; not a Swift paper. Decision 🤖
  4. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) High-energy X-Ray Mission Mission description of NuSTAR; mentions Swift only as a partner for coordinated observations. Decision 🤖