2016 tables: Institutions - Earth & environmental sciences - academic

The 2016 tables are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015.

Table criteria

# Institution Share 2015 Count 2015
1 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 74.17 255
2 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 72.59 230
3 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 67.95 167
4 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 66.53 232
5 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 62.27 188
6 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 50.62 145
7 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 48.50 143
8 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 44.13 111
9 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 41.10 136
10 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 40.61 107
11 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 40.41 151
12 University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), United States of America (USA) 37.82 148
13 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 36.69 108
14 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 36.60 111
15 Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), United States of America (USA) 35.10 87
16 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 33.06 97
17 Arizona State University (ASU), United States of America (USA) 31.92 80
18 The University of Arizona (Arizona), United States of America (USA) 31.35 97
19 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 30.53 79
20 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 30.37 96
21 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 28.69 94
22 University of Hawai'i at Manoa (UH Mānoa), United States of America (USA) 28.02 89
23 University of Florida (UF), United States of America (USA) 26.29 75
24 Oregon State University, United States of America (USA) 25.78 81
25 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 25.61 64
26 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), United States of America (USA) 23.93 61
27 Brown University, United States of America (USA) 23.15 55
28 University of California, Riverside (UCR), United States of America (USA) 23.13 47
29 Texas A&M University (TAMU), United States of America (USA) 23.01 72
30 University of California, Irvine (UCI), United States of America (USA) 22.12 62
31 Purdue University, United States of America (USA) 21.76 59
32 University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA) 21.74 69
33 The University of Iowa (UI), United States of America (USA) 21.62 76
34 Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), United States of America (USA) 21.37 40
35 The University of Utah (Utah), United States of America (USA) 20.54 52
36 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 20.45 69
37 Colorado State University, United States of America (USA) 19.46 65
38 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 19.12 76
39 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), United States of America (USA) 19.04 46
40 Rice University, United States of America (USA) 19.03 48
41 Duke University, United States of America (USA) 18.52 57
42 State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY Stony Brook), United States of America (USA) 18.40 49
43 University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), United States of America (USA) 18.28 58
44 University of Southern California (USC), United States of America (USA) 17.40 47
45 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 16.46 59
46 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 16.17 48
47 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU), United States of America (USA) 15.30 50
48 University of Miami (UM), United States of America (USA) 14.82 47
49 University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst), United States of America (USA) 14.66 38
50 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 14.29 42
51 Boston University (BU), United States of America (USA) 13.93 48
52 University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), United States of America (USA) 13.50 55
53 North Carolina State University (NCSU), United States of America (USA) 12.39 40
54 University of Wyoming, United States of America (USA) 12.36 38
55 University of Connecticut (UConn), United States of America (USA) 12.16 29
56 The University of New Mexico (UNM), United States of America (USA) 11.98 33
57 The University of Georgia (UGA), United States of America (USA) 11.90 35
58 Michigan State University (MSU), United States of America (USA) 11.26 37
59 The University of Oklahoma (OU), United States of America (USA) 10.65 41
60 University of New Hampshire (UNH), United States of America (USA) 10.62 49
61 University of South Carolina - Columbia (SC), United States of America (USA) 10.19 29
62 University of Houston (UH), United States of America (USA) 9.89 30
63 University of Delaware (UD), United States of America (USA) 9.82 26
64 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), United States of America (USA) 9.74 30
65 University of South Florida (USF), United States of America (USA) 9.50 33
66 The University of Maine (UMaine), United States of America (USA) 8.83 34
67 University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), United States of America (USA) 8.35 23
68 Louisiana State University (LSU), United States of America (USA) 7.93 29
69 Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech), United States of America (USA) 7.67 27
70 University of Rhode Island (URI), United States of America (USA) 7.65 28
71 Colorado School of Mines, United States of America (USA) 7.52 28
72 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 7.50 19
73 University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), United States of America (USA) 7.43 25
74 Utah State University (USU), United States of America (USA) 7.41 27
75 University of Oregon (UO), United States of America (USA) 7.12 19
76 Florida State University (FSU), United States of America (USA) 7.08 41
77 Indiana University (IU), United States of America (USA) 7.04 22
78 University of Notre Dame (ND), United States of America (USA) 6.96 12
79 Dartmouth College, United States of America (USA) 6.89 29
80 Clemson University, United States of America (USA) 6.79 13
81 University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), United States of America (USA) 6.43 13
82 The University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK), United States of America (USA) 5.93 23
83 State University of New York at Albany (SUNY Albany), United States of America (USA) 5.71 32
84 Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech), United States of America (USA) 5.48 15
85 University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), United States of America (USA) 5.27 8
86 Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE), United States of America (USA) 5.24 21
87 University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), United States of America (USA) 4.99 36
88 University of Cincinnati (UC), United States of America (USA) 4.89 25
89 The University of Kansas (KU), United States of America (USA) 4.88 18
90 Tufts University, United States of America (USA) 4.79 13
91 University of Vermont (UVM), United States of America (USA) 4.49 15
92 Old Dominion University (ODU), United States of America (USA) 4.44 19
93 Syracuse University, United States of America (USA) 4.41 11
94 Hampton University, United States of America (USA) 4.31 23
95 University of Rochester (UR), United States of America (USA) 4.28 11
96 Boise State University, United States of America (USA) 4.19 13
97 Missouri University of Science and Technology (MST), United States of America (USA) 4.03 6
98 Northeastern University (NEU), United States of America (USA) 4.02 8
99 University at Buffalo, The State University of New York (SUNY UB), United States of America (USA) 3.96 9
100 Southern Methodist University (SMU), United States of America (USA) 3.94 10

Footnote

Each year, the Nature Index publishes tables based on counts of high-quality research outputs in the previous calendar year. Users please note:

  1. The data behind the tables are based on a relatively small proportion of total research papers, they cover the natural sciences only and outputs are non-normalized (that is, they don’t reflect the size of the country or institution, or its overall research output).
  2. The Nature Index is one indicator of institutional research performance. The metrics of Count and Share used to order Nature Index listings are based on an institution’s or country’s publication output in 82 natural-science journals through 2022, in 2023 64 health-science journals were added to the Index. The 146 journals in the Nature Index were selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields.
  3. Nature Index recognizes that many other factors must be taken into account when considering research quality and institutional performance; Nature Index metrics alone should not be used to assess institutions or individuals.
  4. Nature Index data and methods are transparent and available under a creative commons licence at nature.com/nature-index/.
  5. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The Nature Index database undergoes regular updating, corrections, adjustment of institutional hierarchies, and removal of retracted papers and thus the live website can differ from the frozen annual tables.