OOIR: Observatory of International Research

Papers

(The median citation count of International Journal of Astrobiology is 1. The table below lists those papers that are above that threshold based on CrossRef citation counts [max. 250 papers]. The publications cover those that have been published in the past four years, i.e., from 2021-12-01 to 2025-12-01.)

Article	Citations
Observation of significant photosynthesis in garden cress and cyanobacteria under simulated illumination from a K dwarf star	47
The social science perspective on the Fermi paradox	35
Identifying optimal decision-making strategies and determining effective messaging to maximize the expected outcomes of potential human–extraterrestrial encounters	13
Reaching out to early-career astrobiologists: AbGradE's actions and perspectives	10
Abiogenesis: the Carter argument reconsidered	9
Alien technology, conjunction and ergodicity	8
How can planetary back-contamination protection guidelines inform biosafety for synthetic biology?	7
Mars: new insights and unresolved questions – Corrigendum	7
Detecting carotenoids in salt crystals: insights into biosignature detection under Mars-like proton irradiation using in situ and ex situ Raman spectroscopy	7
Heat-induced changes in molecular biosignatures and the influence of Mars-relevant minerals	7
The future of intelligence in the Universe: a call for humility	7
Houston, we have a problem…or do we? The trajectory of astrobioethics and Indigenous thought	6
Survival of Xanthoria parietina in simulated space conditions: vitality assessment and spectroscopic analysis	6
Formalizing the Fermi paradox and combining consistent explanatory hypotheses	6
If extraterrestrial intelligence exists, it is unable to recognize humans as intelligent beings – ERRATUM	6
Intelligence as a planetary scale process	6
Fungus Penicillium rubens isolated from the International Space Station (ISS) shows faster colony growth and better spore resistance to cosmic radiation than type strain	6
Physical and chemical mechanisms that impact the detection, identification, and quantification of organic matter and the survival of microorganisms on the Martian surface – a review	5
Special issue: Open questions and next steps in astrobiology in Europe – celebrating 20 years of EANA	5
Astrobiology: resolution of the statistical Drake equation by Maccone's lognormal method in 50 steps	5
Succession of the bacterial community from a spacecraft assembly clean room when enriched in brines relevant to Mars	5
Role of horizontal gene transfers and microbial ecology in the evolution of fluxes through the tricarboxylic acid cycle	5
Extraterrestrial nature reserves (ETNRs)	5
Stromatolite photomorphogenesis: lighting up their shape	4
Astrovirology: how viruses enhance our understanding of life in the Universe	4

Computer simulations of biotic chiral selection scenarios	4
Fifty years of astrobiology: mapping researcher communities with topic-based network analyses	4
Von Neumann probes: rationale, propulsion, interstellar transfer timing	4
Subsurface scientific exploration of extraterrestrial environments (MINAR 5): analogue science, technology and education in the Boulby Mine, UK – CORRIGENDUM	4
Hype, skin in the game, and the stability of cooperative science	3
Iron reduction as a viable metabolic pathway in Enceladus’ ocean	3
Microbial protocols for spacecraft: 2. Biocidal effects of Delrin and nylon in sealed compartments may enhance bioburden reductions in planetary spacecraft	3
Runaway growth of planetesimals revisited: presenting criteria required for realistic modeling of planetesimal growth	3
Astrobiological applications of μ-mapping X-ray fluorescence spectrometry	3
Megatsunamis and microbial life on early Mars	3
Abundance, isolation and characterization of salinotolerant bacteria in a spacecraft assembly facility	3
Self-replicating probes are imminent – implications for SETI	3
Experimental and theoretical studies of the interactions of alanine onto surfaces of olivine and montmorillonite: relevance in astrobiology	3
Astrobiocentrism: reflections on challenges in the transition to a vision of life and humanity in space	3
Drosophila melanogaster: a promising system for space biology research	3
If extraterrestrial intelligence exists, it is unable to recognize humans as intelligent beings	3
The interstellar object significance scale (Loeb Scale): astronomical classification of interstellar objects	3
Biosignature preservation in FaRLiP cyanobacteria after prolonged desiccation and its relevance to space missions searching for life	3
Role of DNA repair pathways in the recovery of a dried, radioresistant cyanobacterium exposed to high-LET radiation: implications for the habitability of Mars	3
Frontiers of astrobiology and the humanities	2
The Fermi paradox: impact of astrophysical processes and dynamical evolution	2
A proposed mechanism for the formation of protocell-like structures on Titan	2
Regular variability of planet-hosting stars as a periodic environmental driver for prebiotic chemistry	2
The challenging history of other Earths	2
Presence of liquid water during the evolution of exomoons orbiting ejected free-floating planets	2
Planetary biotechnospheres, biotechnosignatures and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence	2
Transdisciplinary contributions in undergraduate university students through a stratospheric balloon project with an astrobiological focus	2
Why do we need (another) universal tracers portal in Astrobiology?	2
Bacteria Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, terrestrial analogue of extraterrestrial microorganisms?	2
Solid grains ejected from terrestrial exoplanets as a probe of the abundance of life in the Milky Way	2
Environmental constraints on the origin of life based on membrane formation: the role of salinity	2
Dehydrated thin film media to rapidly estimate bioburden for planetary protection flight implementation	2
Early taphonomic processes in a microbial-based sedimentary system from a temperate salt-pan site (Cervia salterns, Italy)	2
Applications of microbial bioplastic polyhydroxyalkanoates as biosignatures for astrobiological detection	2
Astroecology: bridging the gap between ecology and astrobiology	2
Hydrocarbons on Mars	2
Life detection in Martian returned samples: correlation between analytical techniques and biological signatures	2
Detection and prebiotic chemistry of possible glycine precursor molecule methylenimine towards the hot molecular core G10.47+0.03	2
Prebiotic decluttering: the thermodynamic tail-wind to asymmetric autocatalysis	1
Database on mineral mediated carbon reduction: implications for future research	1
The Noonday argument: fine-graining, indexicals, and the nature of Copernican reasoning	1
Metabolic pathways profiling of aerobiomes in the Earth’s lower atmosphere	1
Surviving Mars: new insights into the persistence of facultative anaerobic microbes from analogue sites	1
Astrophysical existential threats: a comparative analysis	1
Inferring their minds and analysing our beliefs: on the contribution of (exo)psychology to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence	1
Black holes as tools for quantum computing by advanced extraterrestrial civilizations	1
Children of time: the geological recency of intelligence and its implications for SETI	1
The CRYPTOMARS project: a multi-omic approach for studying Antarctic cryptoendolithic communities as Martian-analog life-forms	1
The multiple extremes of temperature, salt and pH define narrower limits to microbial growth in Halomonas hydrothermalis than individual extremes	1
Spore bioburden transferred in CFC-11 to NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft heat redistribution system	1

Migrating extraterrestrial civilizations and interstellar colonization: implications for SETI and SETA	1
Breakthrough results in astrobiology: is ‘high risk’ research needed?	1
Heat inactivation of proteins: implications for the Mars Sample Campaign and other extraterrestrial sample return missions	1
A brief epistemological discussion of astrotheology in the light of astrobiology	1
A non-anthropocentric solution to the Fermi paradox	1
Biomarkers in the Atacama Desert along the moisture gradient and the depth in the hyperarid zone: Phosphatase activity as trace of microbial activity	1
Estimating the potential of ionizing radiation-induced radiolysis for microbial metabolism on terrestrial planets and satellites with rarefied atmospheres	1
A philosophical perspective about the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the Universe	1
Habitability constraints by nutrient availability in atmospheres of rocky exoplanets	1