2021 tables: Institutions - physical sciences

The 2021 tables are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.

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# Institution Share 2019 Share 2020 Count 2020 Change in Adjusted Share* 2019–2020
1 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 529.53 572.71 2074 0.5%
2 Max Planck Society, Germany 317.91 330.51 1219 -3.4%
3 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 271.79 270.51 1744 -7.5%
4 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 190.29 237.03 1038 15.8%
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 245.53 223.22 714 -15.5%
6 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 200.20 216.90 666 0.7%
7 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 213.90 207.34 605 -9.9%
8 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 202.27 190.86 610 -12.3%
9 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 167.53 183.79 615 2.0%
10 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 146.67 177.10 544 12.2%
11 Peking University (PKU), China 150.91 166.78 668 2.7%
12 Tsinghua University, China 184.09 165.16 698 -16.6%
13 National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy 134.91 150.17 727 3.5%
14 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 150.66 143.30 422 -11.6%
15 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 130.81 143.25 908 1.8%
16 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 126.18 139.62 347 2.8%
17 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 122.88 135.89 579 2.8%
18 Nanjing University (NJU), China 128.27 134.53 411 -2.5%
19 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 113.00 126.73 428 4.2%
20 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 120.97 126.73 477 -2.6%
21 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 95.08 119.67 311 17.0%
22 Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Russia 111.66 118.42 570 -1.4%
23 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 84.10 117.06 374 29.4%
24 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 112.08 116.93 377 -3.0%
25 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 90.76 114.27 352 17.0%
26 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea 89.20 108.36 218 12.9%
27 Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore 91.99 107.17 268 8.3%
28 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 96.94 105.78 308 1.4%
29 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 103.94 105.76 364 -5.4%
30 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 102.43 105.12 321 -4.6%
31 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 95.37 104.76 341 2.1%
32 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 85.89 95.78 404 3.7%
33 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 71.13 95.30 312 24.5%
34 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 81.30 94.17 627 7.7%
35 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 86.20 90.64 256 -2.3%
36 Fudan University, China 95.29 90.35 302 -11.9%
37 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 73.80 89.54 269 12.8%
38 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States of America (USA) 89.54 89.08 532 -7.5%
39 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 104.38 88.13 273 -21.5%
40 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 65.36 87.38 319 24.3%
41 University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), United States of America (USA) 96.94 87.06 390 -16.5%
42 Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), China 44.60 83.02 247 73.0%
43 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 56.32 82.83 235 36.7%
44 Kyoto University, Japan 64.98 81.71 237 16.9%
45 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 65.03 80.38 257 14.9%
46 Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China 86.80 79.81 215 -14.5%
47 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 73.43 79.75 247 0.9%
48 Soochow University, China 94.38 78.64 205 -22.6%
49 Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea 74.53 78.08 265 -2.6%
50 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 65.76 78.05 271 10.3%
51 RIKEN, Japan 60.92 73.21 346 11.7%
52 Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), United States of America (USA) 72.16 71.16 352 -8.4%
53 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 71.61 71.02 212 -7.8%
54 National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan 65.45 69.48 297 -1.3%
55 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 69.25 69.22 197 -7.1%
56 Purdue University, United States of America (USA) 61.81 67.63 200 1.7%
57 Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (IIT), Israel 51.94 65.06 161 16.4%
58 Tohoku University, Japan 57.68 64.94 232 4.6%
59 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States of America (USA) 72.06 63.19 249 -18.5%
60 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 56.64 62.19 272 2.1%
61 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 58.57 61.19 291 -2.9%
62 Nankai University (NKU), China 46.83 61.10 182 21.3%
63 Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), China 64.38 60.86 216 -12.1%
64 Leibniz Association, Germany 54.76 59.95 316 1.8%
65 Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU), China 60.10 59.37 157 -8.2%
66 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 63.08 58.55 268 -13.7%
67 Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), United States of America (USA) 70.42 58.37 214 -23.0%
68 Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), United States of America (USA) 49.00 57.94 231 9.9%
69 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 45.66 56.90 245 15.8%
70 Rice University, United States of America (USA) 52.71 56.57 201 -0.2%
71 Tianjin University (TJU), China 57.77 56.04 175 -9.8%
72 Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), South Korea 53.38 55.98 137 -2.5%
73 Sorbonne University, France 53.54 55.26 555 -4.1%
74 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 54.52 55.16 250 -6.0%
75 Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), China 44.04 54.31 138 14.6%
76 Beihang University (BUAA), China 54.29 54.25 278 -7.1%
77 Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), United States of America (USA) 52.05 53.94 268 -3.7%
78 Wuhan University (WHU), China 61.18 53.70 186 -18.4%
79 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 49.74 53.39 239 -0.2%
80 Jilin University (JLU), China 49.92 52.04 143 -3.1%
81 European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland 53.17 51.50 342 -10.0%
82 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 52.42 51.46 281 -8.8%
83 The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), France 46.09 51.02 551 2.9%
84 Xiamen University (XMU), China 33.96 50.93 114 39.4%
85 Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea 42.06 50.87 151 12.4%
86 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia 47.52 50.51 117 -1.2%
87 Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), South Korea 51.87 50.43 190 -9.6%
88 TU Dresden, Germany 43.36 50.19 231 7.6%
89 Uppsala University (UU), Sweden 36.37 50.14 215 28.1%
90 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 46.55 49.56 212 -1.0%
91 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 48.97 49.38 262 -6.3%
92 National Research Council (CNR), Italy 47.74 49.12 259 -4.4%
93 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), China 47.06 49.04 177 -3.1%
94 Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), United States of America (USA) 51.57 48.28 259 -13.0%
95 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 50.46 47.78 251 -12.0%
96 Sichuan University (SCU), China 40.45 47.46 102 9.1%
97 Durham University, United Kingdom (UK) 51.61 46.68 148 -15.9%
98 University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK) 41.25 44.78 178 0.9%
99 Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Spain 41.74 44.33 195 -1.3%
100 Yonsei University, South Korea 45.92 44.32 170 -10.3%

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.


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