2017 tables: Institutions - physical sciences

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

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# Institution Share 2015 Share 2016 Count 2016 Change in Adjusted Share* 2015–2016
1 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 511.33 515.12 1471 3.1%
2 Max Planck Society, Germany 320.16 318.30 1087 1.8%
3 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 325.30 305.16 1679 -4.0%
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 226.21 237.36 672 7.4%
5 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 227.47 223.27 582 0.5%
6 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 206.28 193.46 803 -4.0%
7 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 172.73 182.41 555 8.1%
8 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 223.54 168.59 524 -22.8%
9 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 169.92 162.40 507 -2.2%
10 Peking University (PKU), China 123.75 141.83 538 17.3%
11 Tsinghua University, China 117.99 136.19 573 18.1%
12 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 130.10 126.98 426 -0.1%
13 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 139.00 124.32 331 -8.5%
14 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 125.51 124.12 511 1.2%
15 Nanjing University (NJU), China 86.17 121.33 361 44.1%
16 National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy 123.49 118.97 607 -1.4%
17 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 110.85 109.10 319 0.7%
18 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 94.00 108.24 381 17.9%
19 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 102.50 103.95 365 3.8%
20 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 103.42 101.08 270 0.0%
21 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 117.65 98.56 319 -14.3%
22 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 108.33 98.45 305 -7.0%
23 Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore 100.40 98.22 216 0.1%
24 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 87.58 96.98 226 13.3%
25 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 90.59 95.21 252 7.6%
26 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 109.06 92.52 266 -13.2%
27 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States of America (USA) 85.65 92.07 491 10.0%
28 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 107.97 91.56 321 -13.2%
29 Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Russia 91.82 91.32 507 1.8%
30 University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), United States of America (USA) 105.42 90.77 375 -11.9%
31 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea 86.17 90.40 190 7.4%
32 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 84.27 84.79 258 3.0%
33 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 74.48 82.37 545 13.2%
34 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 80.29 79.67 224 1.6%
35 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 86.17 78.89 306 -6.3%
36 Tohoku University, Japan 87.66 78.63 213 -8.2%
37 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States of America (USA) 65.36 75.73 232 18.6%
38 Leibniz Association, Germany 81.68 75.30 237 -5.6%
39 Soochow University, China 66.80 73.78 134 13.0%
40 Fudan University, China 79.62 71.81 182 -7.7%
41 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 81.61 71.04 224 -10.9%
42 Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea 86.16 70.74 230 -16.0%
43 Kyoto University, Japan 79.59 70.44 248 -9.4%
44 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 73.68 70.31 218 -2.3%
45 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 90.31 69.59 275 -21.1%
46 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 62.38 69.46 265 14.0%
47 Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), United States of America (USA) 61.92 69.38 354 14.7%
48 Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), United States of America (USA) 79.18 69.09 239 -10.7%
49 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 74.82 67.23 285 -8.0%
50 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 56.64 67.12 194 21.3%
51 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 71.73 66.39 185 -5.3%
52 Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), United States of America (USA) 86.90 65.11 214 -23.3%
53 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 63.50 63.75 191 2.8%
54 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 54.12 62.80 200 18.8%
55 The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), France 68.07 61.27 534 -7.9%
56 National Research Council (CNR), Italy 67.41 60.45 267 -8.2%
57 Rice University, United States of America (USA) 69.25 60.36 184 -10.8%
58 Purdue University, United States of America (USA) 61.09 59.69 208 0.0%
59 RIKEN, Japan 69.77 58.44 229 -14.3%
60 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 61.17 58.44 225 -2.2%
61 U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), United States of America (USA) 61.12 58.03 169 -2.8%
62 Durham University, United Kingdom (UK) 41.69 57.64 137 41.5%
63 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 68.55 57.59 204 -14.0%
64 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 62.69 57.13 217 -6.7%
65 Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (IIT), Israel 54.15 56.85 161 7.5%
66 Osaka University, Japan 49.07 56.43 222 17.7%
67 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 54.31 55.86 228 5.3%
68 Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), United States of America (USA) 59.33 55.81 209 -3.7%
69 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 59.17 54.63 250 -5.5%
70 National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan 63.32 53.74 173 -13.1%
71 Sorbonne University, France 55.71 53.47 548 -1.8%
72 European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland 63.17 53.18 345 -13.8%
73 University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK) 41.45 52.76 176 30.3%
74 Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea 60.94 52.43 124 -11.9%
75 Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), United States of America (USA) 50.44 52.42 256 6.4%
76 TU Dresden, Germany 44.33 50.21 210 15.9%
77 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 39.47 49.51 248 28.4%
78 Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), India 41.18 48.80 152 21.3%
79 Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), South Korea 52.02 48.56 175 -4.5%
80 Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU), China 37.48 48.24 121 31.7%
81 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia 31.18 47.87 101 57.2%
82 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany 41.67 47.83 211 17.5%
83 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 61.11 47.72 244 -20.1%
84 Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Spain 41.20 47.33 202 17.6%
85 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), China 40.78 46.81 158 17.5%
86 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 51.21 46.58 236 -6.9%
87 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 43.94 46.50 207 8.3%
88 Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Spain 36.07 45.89 258 30.2%
89 Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Netherlands 41.47 44.04 117 8.7%
90 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 42.60 43.55 265 4.6%
91 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 43.44 43.50 198 2.5%
92 Institute for Basic Science (IBS), South Korea 32.69 42.87 172 34.2%
93 University of Paris-Sud (UPSud), France 39.60 41.37 404 6.9%
94 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 27.22 41.00 245 54.2%
95 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU), United States of America (USA) 47.59 40.76 181 -12.3%
96 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 33.43 39.62 240 21.3%
97 Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Japan 42.58 39.53 177 -5.0%
98 Beihang University (BUAA), China 28.45 39.26 132 41.2%
99 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 42.04 38.21 185 -7.0%
100 University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany 45.50 38.20 161 -14.1%

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/.

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.


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