2017 Research Leaders: Leading academic institutions in physical sciences

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

Table criteria

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Position Institution Share 2015 Share 2016 Count 2016 Change in Adjusted Share* 2015–2016
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 226.39 237.56 724 7.4% Increase
2 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 227.64 223.48 631 0.5% Increase
3 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 172.90 182.62 604 8.1% Increase
4 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 223.59 168.58 524 -22.8% Decrease
5 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 169.92 162.40 507 -2.2% Decrease
6 Peking University (PKU), China 123.75 141.83 538 17.3% Increase
7 Tsinghua University, China 117.99 136.19 573 18.1% Increase
8 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 130.10 126.98 426 -0.1% Decrease
9 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 125.68 124.33 559 1.3% Increase
10 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 139.00 124.32 331 -8.4% Decrease
11 Nanjing University (NJU), China 86.17 121.33 361 44.1% Increase
12 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 111.02 109.30 374 0.8% Increase
13 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 94.00 108.24 379 17.9% Increase
14 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 102.67 104.15 409 3.8% Increase
15 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 103.42 101.08 270 0.0% Increase
16 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 108.49 98.66 359 -6.9% Decrease
17 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 117.65 98.56 319 -14.3% Decrease
18 Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore 100.40 98.22 216 0.1% Increase
19 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 87.58 96.98 226 13.3% Increase
20 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 90.59 95.21 252 7.6% Increase
21 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 109.06 92.52 266 -13.2% Decrease
22 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 108.14 91.76 373 -13.1% Decrease
23 University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), United States of America (USA) 105.59 90.98 424 -11.8% Decrease
24 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea 86.17 90.40 190 7.4% Increase
25 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 84.58 85.03 321 2.9% Increase
26 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 80.46 79.87 280 1.6% Increase
27 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 86.17 78.89 306 -6.3% Decrease
28 Tohoku University, Japan 87.83 78.84 272 -8.1% Decrease
29 Soochow University, China 66.80 73.78 134 13.1% Increase
30 Fudan University, China 79.62 71.81 182 -7.7% Decrease
31 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 81.60 71.03 224 -10.9% Decrease
32 Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea 86.16 70.74 230 -16.0% Decrease
33 Kyoto University, Japan 79.59 70.44 248 -9.4% Decrease
34 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 73.68 70.31 218 -2.3% Decrease
35 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 62.30 69.66 320 14.5% Increase
36 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 90.31 69.59 275 -21.1% Decrease
37 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 74.99 67.43 342 -8.0% Decrease
38 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 56.64 67.12 194 21.3% Increase
39 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 71.73 66.39 185 -5.3% Decrease
40 Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), United States of America (USA) 86.90 65.11 214 -23.3% Decrease
41 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany 60.98 63.83 214 7.1% Increase
42 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 63.50 63.75 191 2.8% Increase
43 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 54.12 62.80 200 18.8% Increase
44 Rice University, United States of America (USA) 69.25 60.36 184 -10.8% Decrease
45 Purdue University, United States of America (USA) 61.09 59.69 208 0.0% Increase
46 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 61.34 58.64 284 -2.1% Decrease
47 Durham University, United Kingdom (UK) 41.69 57.64 137 41.5% Increase
48 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 68.55 57.59 204 -14.0% Decrease
49 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 62.87 57.33 277 -6.7% Decrease
50 Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (IIT), Israel 54.15 56.85 161 7.5% Increase
51 Osaka University, Japan 49.07 56.43 222 17.7% Increase
52 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 54.31 55.86 228 5.3% Increase
53 University of Paris-Saclay, France 53.91 55.81 447 6.0% Increase
54 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 59.33 54.84 306 -5.4% Decrease
55 Sorbonne University, France 55.71 53.44 548 -1.8% Decrease
56 University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK) 41.45 52.76 176 30.3% Increase
57 Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea 60.94 52.43 124 -11.9% Decrease
58 TU Dresden, Germany 44.33 50.21 210 15.9% Increase
59 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 39.47 49.51 248 28.4% Increase
60 Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), India 41.18 48.80 152 21.3% Increase
61 Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), South Korea 52.02 48.56 175 -4.4% Decrease
62 Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU), China 37.48 48.24 121 31.7% Increase
63 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 61.28 47.93 302 -19.9% Decrease
64 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia 31.18 47.87 101 57.2% Increase
65 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany 41.67 47.83 211 17.5% Increase
66 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), China 40.78 46.81 158 17.5% Increase
67 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 51.21 46.58 236 -6.9% Decrease
68 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 43.94 46.50 207 8.3% Increase
69 Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Spain 36.07 45.89 258 30.2% Increase
70 Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Netherlands 41.47 44.04 117 8.7% Increase
71 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 42.77 43.76 321 4.7% Increase
72 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 43.44 43.50 198 2.5% Increase
73 Grenoble Alpes University (UGA), France 42.40 42.70 329 3.1% Increase
74 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 27.22 41.00 245 54.2% Increase
75 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU), United States of America (USA) 47.77 40.97 239 -12.2% Decrease
76 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 33.43 39.62 240 21.3% Increase
77 Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Japan 42.58 39.53 177 -5.0% Decrease
78 Beihang University (BUAA), China 28.45 39.26 132 41.3% Increase
79 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 42.21 38.42 234 -6.8% Decrease
80 University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany 45.50 38.20 161 -14.1% Decrease
81 Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), China 22.72 37.76 70 70.1% Increase
82 Australian National University (ANU), Australia 48.68 37.60 129 -20.9% Decrease
83 National Taiwan University (NTU), Taiwan 48.21 37.29 146 -20.8% Decrease
84 Tel Aviv University (TAU), Israel 43.42 37.19 156 -12.3% Decrease
85 University of Hamburg (UHH), Germany 44.46 36.31 185 -16.4% Decrease
86 Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Netherlands 23.36 36.23 85 58.7% Increase
87 Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China 33.86 35.88 104 8.5% Increase
88 University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), United States of America (USA) 29.88 35.74 125 22.4% Increase
89 Nagoya University, Japan 36.49 35.73 155 0.2% Increase
90 Aalto University, Finland 38.94 35.50 169 -6.7% Decrease
91 Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), Israel 36.76 34.97 77 -2.6% Decrease
92 Nankai University (NKU), China 27.27 34.89 104 31.0% Increase
93 University of Waterloo, Canada 40.16 34.70 93 -11.6% Decrease
94 Boston University (BU), United States of America (USA) 32.58 34.11 301 7.1% Increase
95 The University of Manchester (UoM), United Kingdom (UK) 30.80 33.94 229 12.8% Increase
96 University of Amsterdam (UvA), Netherlands 26.71 33.71 269 29.2% Increase
97 Lund University (LU), Sweden 40.58 33.66 169 -15.1% Decrease
98 University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA) 29.71 33.46 157 15.3% Increase
99 Yonsei University, South Korea 40.98 33.34 95 -16.7% Decrease
100 University of California, Irvine (UCI), United States of America (USA) 23.86 33.20 171 42.4% Increase

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 and health 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 145 natural-science and health-science journals. The journals were selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields. The list is reviewed periodically and journals may be removed or added. Articles from eLife were no longer included in the Nature Index from 2023 after the journal changed its publishing model.
  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 research leaders.


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