Top Downloaded Articles in 2020

2020 will be a year we never forget. While it's time to begin a new year of restoration and continued progress, it's also the time to revisit the high impact articles that were downloaded the most during 2020. Below you'll find articles from our 51 disciplines that attracted the most attention from readers during the year.

Annual Reviews continues to support the research community during this challenging time of world-changing events. The articles in this collection are either Open Access or are freely available to download via the links below – and always available at subscribing institutions.

Included in this collection are also Annual Reviews'

• MOST READ ECONOMICS 
• MOST READ SOCIAL SCIENCES 
• MOST READ PHYSICAL SCIENCES 
• MOST READ BIOMEDICAL/LIFE SCIENCES

Annual Reviews articles hold a unique place in the scholarly communication ecosystem because they transfer expert knowledge synthesized from the exponentially expanding corpus of scientific literature to scholars and society.

They play a crucial role in stimulating discussion about science by:

• Capturing current understanding of a topic, including what is well supported and what is controversial;
• Setting the work in historical context;
• Highlighting the major questions that remain to be addressed and the likely course of research in upcoming years; and
• Outlining the practical applications and general significance of research to society.