2017 tables: Institutions - biological sciences

The 2017 tables are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016.

Table criteria

# Institution Share 2015 Share 2016 Count 2016 Change in Adjusted Share* 2015–2016
1 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 638.38 607.17 1540 -2.2%
2 National Institutes of Health (NIH), United States of America (USA) 363.27 313.28 786 -11.3%
3 Max Planck Society, Germany 257.46 280.92 933 12.2%
4 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 280.37 235.05 601 -13.8%
5 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 195.40 210.56 563 10.8%
6 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 200.54 207.02 789 6.2%
7 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 205.43 192.92 421 -3.4%
8 University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), United States of America (USA) 199.11 190.84 530 -1.4%
9 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 176.07 180.88 517 5.7%
10 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 172.52 171.18 1196 2.0%
11 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 159.15 170.98 535 10.5%
12 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 183.21 164.24 490 -7.8%
13 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 155.85 158.68 397 4.7%
14 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 165.37 156.39 425 -2.7%
15 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 161.99 144.73 400 -8.1%
16 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), United States of America (USA) 143.22 143.24 326 2.9%
17 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 176.93 142.86 390 -17.0%
18 Duke University, United States of America (USA) 144.66 139.56 375 -0.8%
19 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 142.85 135.38 343 -2.5%
20 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 143.75 133.58 338 -4.4%
21 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 140.02 129.71 410 -4.7%
22 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 144.08 129.17 374 -7.8%
23 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 153.99 120.32 328 -19.6%
24 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 130.21 119.93 385 -5.3%
25 New York University (NYU), United States of America (USA) 119.07 117.74 288 1.7%
26 The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern Medical Center), United States of America (USA) 118.84 114.22 252 -1.2%
27 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 107.41 113.31 627 8.5%
28 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 117.42 100.45 205 -12.0%
29 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 120.43 98.92 285 -15.5%
30 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 109.66 97.95 246 -8.1%
31 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), United States of America (USA) 98.86 96.56 267 0.4%
32 University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), United States of America (USA) 80.60 93.97 225 19.9%
33 McGill University, Canada 98.41 89.94 258 -6.0%
34 The Rockefeller University, United States of America (USA) 99.54 89.16 231 -7.9%
35 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 81.20 88.74 223 12.4%
36 Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), United States of America (USA) 100.63 88.48 293 -9.6%
37 University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 66.83 85.98 283 32.3%
38 Scripps Research, United States of America (USA) 76.22 85.88 219 15.9%
39 The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, United States of America (USA) 74.96 85.25 274 17.0%
40 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), United States of America (USA) 83.71 83.72 249 2.9%
41 Vanderbilt University (VU), United States of America (USA) 88.36 82.31 223 -4.2%
42 National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM), France 86.75 80.38 764 -4.7%
43 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 76.92 79.75 140 6.6%
44 Mount Sinai Health System (MSHS), United States of America (USA) 60.83 70.63 240 19.4%
45 Karolinska Institute (KI), Sweden 64.79 68.11 299 8.1%
46 The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (UK) 71.12 67.73 218 -2.1%
47 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 62.80 66.40 216 8.7%
48 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 56.96 66.24 261 19.6%
49 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 58.49 65.41 288 15.0%
50 Emory University, United States of America (USA) 68.61 65.33 201 -2.1%
51 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 71.03 63.79 211 -7.6%
52 University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA) 85.40 63.75 197 -23.2%
53 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 51.01 62.93 138 26.9%
54 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 78.76 62.14 141 -18.9%
55 Osaka University, Japan 50.11 61.87 166 27.0%
56 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU), United States of America (USA) 49.55 60.88 156 26.4%
57 University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMass Chan Medical School), United States of America (USA) 65.04 60.10 251 -5.0%
58 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 63.41 59.61 165 -3.3%
59 The University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada 67.60 58.34 155 -11.3%
60 Peking University (PKU), China 53.77 57.86 157 10.7%
61 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 64.55 56.91 123 -9.3%
62 University of Southern California (USC), United States of America (USA) 65.95 55.20 166 -13.9%
63 RIKEN, Japan 60.07 54.97 193 -5.9%
64 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 44.21 54.43 136 26.6%
65 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 54.53 53.44 253 0.8%
66 Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), United States of America (USA) 51.71 53.21 149 5.8%
67 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 75.95 52.62 270 -28.7%
68 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), United Kingdom (UK) 51.91 52.48 187 4.0%
69 University of California, Irvine (UCI), United States of America (USA) 42.07 52.43 138 28.2%
70 Mayo Clinic, United States of America (USA) 44.53 52.42 155 21.1%
71 Kyoto University, Japan 57.94 50.94 152 -9.6%
72 Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), United States of America (USA) 40.53 50.89 118 29.1%
73 Boston University (BU), United States of America (USA) 49.75 50.48 198 4.3%
74 Indiana University (IU), United States of America (USA) 49.08 50.42 158 5.7%
75 Tsinghua University, China 50.73 49.31 140 0.0%
76 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 55.94 49.24 206 -9.5%
77 Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Einstein), United States of America (USA) 60.15 48.21 153 -17.6%
78 Leibniz Association, Germany 51.47 47.96 276 -4.2%
79 Salk Institute for Biological Studies (Salk), United States of America (USA) 52.57 47.61 136 -6.9%
80 University of Basel (UB), Switzerland 46.46 47.45 147 5.0%
81 The University of Iowa (UI), United States of America (USA) 46.57 47.44 116 4.8%
82 University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (CU Anschutz), United States of America (USA) 42.67 46.58 128 12.3%
83 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (St. Jude), United States of America (USA) 41.59 46.43 110 14.8%
84 The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia 52.98 44.63 171 -13.4%
85 HHMI Janelia Research Campus, United States of America (USA) 50.60 44.42 91 -9.7%
86 Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), Israel 48.74 44.14 122 -6.9%
87 The University of Utah (Utah), United States of America (USA) 49.26 43.91 127 -8.3%
88 University of Cincinnati (UC), United States of America (USA) 39.70 43.81 121 13.5%
89 The Francis Crick Institute, United Kingdom (UK) 54.47 43.76 120 -17.4%
90 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 25.32 42.87 126 74.1%
91 European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Germany 44.35 42.31 216 -1.9%
92 Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands 43.14 41.12 194 -2.0%
93 Radboud University Nijmegen (RU), Netherlands 29.30 40.91 196 43.6%
94 Lund University (LU), Sweden 28.32 40.67 145 47.7%
95 The University of Melbourne (UniMelb), Australia 39.11 40.08 235 5.4%
96 The University of Manchester (UoM), United Kingdom (UK) 55.41 39.61 148 -26.5%
97 Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Healthcare (IRCCS), Italy 47.52 39.11 200 -15.4%
98 University of Montreal (UdeM), Canada 36.35 39.08 148 10.6%
99 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 37.51 39.08 113 7.2%
100 University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland 33.50 38.97 146 19.6%

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.

*The change in adjusted Share accounts for the small annual variation in the total number of articles in Nature Index journals. Share values have been adjusted to 2022 levels to calculate the percentage change. For more information on the adjustment, please see the Adjusted metric explainer.