Nature Index Annual Tables 2023: Fastest risers

We look at the institutions that have made rapid gains in the natural sciences from 2021 to 2022.

7 July 2023

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The rapid rise of Chinese institutions in the latest Nature Index Annual Tables emphasises the success of the country’s long-term investment in science, which has included a focus on increasing authorship in international publications. Of the 100 fastest-rising institutions for output in the 82 natural-sciences journals tracked by the Nature Index, 84 are from China.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in Beijing, tops this list, with a 184-point rise in adjusted Share between 2021 and 2022 (adjusted Share is a way of expressing the Nature Index’s Share metric that takes account of variations in the volume of articles in the database each year), taking it to a total Share of 2,054. As the world’s largest scientific organisation, comprising more than 100 institutes in China that employ roughly 69,000 researchers and 79,000 postgraduates, it is perhaps unsurprising that CAS has the highest Share of any Chinese institution and the largest rise in adjusted Share. It is noteworthy, however, that when looking at rises in adjusted Share in percentage terms, CAS’s rise is lower than every other Chinese institution in the top 100 fastest risers.

Nanjing University (NJU), for instance, saw its adjusted Share go up by 113 from 2021 to 2022, a 26% percentage rise. Other big increases in the top 10 fastest risers included Sun Yat-sen University, in Guangzhou, which gained 78 adjusted Share points, a rise of 24%; the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, which went up 64 points in adjusted Share, or 28%; Tianjin University, up 62 in adjusted Share or 33%; Xiamen University, up 61 points or 31%; and Central South University in Changsha, which had the largest percentage rise in adjusted Share in the top 10 (61 points or 54%).

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Further down the list, there are also examples of Chinese institutions that have more than doubled their adjusted Share in just one year, although an important caveat is that some of these rose from a relatively low base figure in 2021. Examples include Guangxi University in Nanning, which rose by 25 adjusted Share points, an increase of 118%, and Nanjing Medical University, which increased its adjusted Share by 20, or 102%.

General growth

The dominance of Chinese institutions among the fastest risers builds on what was seen in the 2022 Annual Tables. Last year, the 31 fastest rising institutions in the Nature Index were all Chinese; this year, the 47 fastest rising were Chinese. To a large extent, this is simply the product of China’s huge overall rise in adjusted Share, which took it to the top of the country/territory Annual Tables for natural sciences for the first time this year. The Nature Index database is a zero-sum game: if one country and its institutions make rapid gains, others inevitably fall. Any non-Chinese institutions among the top 100 fastest risers are, therefore, noteworthy for bucking this trend.

The highest among them is Rice University, a private non-profit institution in Houston, Texas, at rank 48 for the fastest risers with a 22% change in adjusted Share, taking it to a Share of 125 in 2022. Researchers based at the institution, which ranks 104th overall for natural sciences in the Annual Tables, published high-profile papers in 2022 including two in Science, one that describes new techniques for converting ammonia into hydrogen fuel and another on making more stable, efficient solar panels. The University of Wisconsin-Madison, in Madison, Wisconsin, is the second-highest ranked non-Chinese institution in the rising stars table for 2023, in 64th place. Other countries or territories with institutions making the top 100 fastest risers include France, India, Luxembourg, Japan, Italy and Switzerland.

Subject strength

Chinese institutions also dominate the fasting-rising rankings for natural-science subject areas in the Nature Index: chemistry, biological sciences, Earth and environmental sciences, and physical sciences. Biological sciences is the only subject ranking to feature non-Chinese institutions among the top 20 fastest-rising institutions. They are led by Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, which gained 19 adjusted Share points in the biological sciences from 2021 to 2022, a rise of 10%. The other institution in the top 10 for biological sciences was the University of Tokyo, up 17 adjusted Share points, or 19%. There were also institutions from Switzerland, Germany and Canada in the top 20.

National standouts

An analysis of fastest-rising institutions within countries also reveals some strong performers, such as Tohoku University, in Sendai, Japan, which had a 10% change in adjusted Share between 2021 and 2022 across all the natural-science subjects, bringing it to a Share of 143 in 2022. The university is ranked 89th in the world in the natural-science Annual Tables 2023, behind the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University and Osaka University.

In South Korea, the adjusted Share of Sungkyunkwan University, in Seoul, also grew by 10% to reach a Share of 93 in 2022, making it the country’s top-ranked fastest-rising institution. The University of Edinburgh is the United Kingdom’s fastest riser, growing by 6.7% to reach a Share of 145 in 2022, 87th overall for the natural-science Annual Tables.