  Motivated by the exploration of bipolaronic superconductivity in conducting
polymers, we examine such a possibility in the starting member of
$p$-oligophenyls $-$ $p$-terphenyl with three phenyl rings, belonging to the
family of conducting polymer polyparaphenylene. The formation of bipolarons is
identified from Raman scattering measurements. Both the dc and ac magnetic
susceptibility measurements reveal that $p$-terphenyl is a type-II
superconductor with a critical temperature of 7.2 K upon doping potassium. The
electron-lattice interaction, manifested by pronounced bipolaronic bands, is
suggested to account for the observed superconductivity. Conducting polymers
are thus demonstrated to have the potential for the development of new
superconducting technologies and devices.
