Beijing, China is the top contributor to the authorship of papers in the 82 high-quality research journals tracked by the Nature Index, measured by fractional count (FC). Peking University and Tsinghua University are leading institutions in Beijing.
The New York metro area follows closely behind, bolstered by output from Columbia, Yale and Princeton University. Ranked third is Boston - Cambridge - Newton, home to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Fourth, San Francisco - San Jose hosts Stanford University and the University of California Berkeley, as well as several prolific corporate institutions, notably Genentech, Inc.
Cities are the ideal setting for scientific exploration. They attract bright and diverse minds, are abuzz with creative activity, and can summon the capital to realize big ideas. Nature Index 2018 Science Cities profiles five science cities that are leaders in their regions. But each is contending with problems of equity and engagement that need to be addressed to keep them strong.
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The Nature Index tracks high-quality research and collaborations by measuring the contribution of institutions and, by extension, cities and countries/regions, to a set of high-quality journals in the natural sciences. An institution’s contribution to these journals is its fractional count (FC). The scientific output for each city constitutes the sum of the FC for all articles co-authored by authors from institutions in that city.
In this map, the output in 2017, is shown for the top 500 cities. Circles centred around cities represent the scientific output there, where larger circles indicate larger city output. Along with city FC, a list of up to ten top institutions (with FC greater than 0.05) for all subjects in a particular city is shown on the left when clicking on a city circle. Selecting a specific subject reorders the top ten institutions overall by their output in that subject. Each listed institution’s FC also incorporates the output obtained by its children, and, where appropriate, partner institutions. As a result, an institution’s FC could exceed the FC obtained in the particular city where it is listed. For more details on the boundaries used to define cities, see A Guide to the Nature Index.