What is the definition of "hot-paper" or "hot- article" ?

Question

What is the definition of "hot-paper" or "hot- article" ?

Answer 1

I'm sure there is no precise definition.

The magazine The Scientist defines it by the number of citations a paper receives in a short amount of time:  hot = over 100 citations within about two years after it is published.

In other cases, a hot paper might be a new development in an exciting field even before it can get cited much.  Perhaps a technical leap forward in stem cells would be hot these days.

Other times, it might just be a personal opinion as to whether a paper is hot, i.e. if it is a cool development in your field even if your field isn't so competitive.