Hello,

Our college library subscribes to the ISI Web of Science's Social Sciences and
Science Citations Indexes. I thought this could be a useful resource to find
highly regarded research across any number of fields. While articles are rated
under terms of Impact Factor, Total Cites, etc. this does not seem to be
sifting out the very best of research going on.

Are there any awarding bodies that recognize research papers in any given
field; the 'Nobels' of scholarly articles so to say? Perhaps, a newsletter or
web site tracking buzz over scholarly articles. Time obviously plays a role in
determining the relevance of some research submissions but I would think that
when one particularly good piece of work has been submitted there would be a
way to know this beyond waiting for an article to be highly cited, which in
some cases I am sure still is not the best indicator of an articles overall
value.

Every two months, Essential Science Indicators from Thomson Reuters lists a
new crop of what it calls hot papers in science and this is about as close as
I have come to such a listing, but again they base 'hotness' on citation
counts. I think Emerald also a way of spotlighting top research being
published.

As an example, lets say a site or publication lists bi-monthly the two or
three articles across a variety of fields that are drawing a lot of attention
and acclaim for the thoroughness, applicability, and sound methodology.

It may be that that what I am after is a serial publication that puts together
a compilation of articles that have passed muster over the last five years or
so and are now considered reference points in their field. For more current I
would have to just wait for the consensus opinion of researchers within the
field.

Thanks for all the help, Steve.