2017 Research Leaders: Leading institutions in physical sciences

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

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Position Institution Share 2015 Share 2016 Count 2016 Change in Adjusted Share* 2015–2016
1 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 511.33 515.14 1471 3.1% Increase
2 Max Planck Society, Germany 320.15 318.30 1085 1.8% Increase
3 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 323.06 302.24 1679 -4.2% Decrease
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 226.39 237.56 724 7.4% Increase
5 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 227.64 223.48 631 0.5% Increase
6 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 206.28 193.46 803 -4.0% Decrease
7 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 172.90 182.62 604 8.1% Increase
8 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 223.59 168.58 524 -22.8% Decrease
9 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 169.92 162.40 507 -2.2% Decrease
10 Peking University (PKU), China 123.75 141.83 538 17.3% Increase
11 Tsinghua University, China 117.99 136.19 573 18.1% Increase
12 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 130.10 126.98 426 -0.1% Decrease
13 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 125.68 124.33 559 1.3% Increase
14 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 139.00 124.32 331 -8.4% Decrease
15 Nanjing University (NJU), China 86.17 121.33 361 44.1% Increase
16 National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy 123.49 118.92 606 -1.4% Decrease
17 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 111.02 109.30 374 0.8% Increase
18 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 94.00 108.24 379 17.9% Increase
19 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 102.67 104.15 409 3.8% Increase
20 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 103.42 101.08 270 0.0% Increase
21 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 108.49 98.66 359 -6.9% Decrease
22 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 117.65 98.56 319 -14.3% Decrease
23 Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore 100.40 98.22 216 0.1% Increase
24 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 87.58 96.98 226 13.3% Increase
25 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 90.59 95.21 252 7.6% Increase
26 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 109.06 92.52 266 -13.2% Decrease
27 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States of America (USA) 85.64 92.06 491 10.0% Increase
28 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 108.14 91.76 373 -13.1% Decrease
29 Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Russia 91.82 91.32 507 1.8% Increase
30 University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), United States of America (USA) 105.59 90.98 424 -11.8% Decrease
31 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea 86.17 90.40 190 7.4% Increase
32 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 84.58 85.03 321 2.9% Increase
33 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 74.57 82.48 597 13.2% Increase
34 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 80.46 79.87 280 1.6% Increase
35 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 86.17 78.89 306 -6.3% Decrease
36 Tohoku University, Japan 87.83 78.84 272 -8.1% Decrease
37 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States of America (USA) 65.36 75.73 232 18.6% Increase
38 Leibniz Association, Germany 81.85 75.51 294 -5.6% Decrease
39 Soochow University, China 66.80 73.78 134 13.1% Increase
40 Fudan University, China 79.62 71.81 182 -7.7% Decrease
41 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 81.60 71.03 224 -10.9% Decrease
42 Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea 86.16 70.74 230 -16.0% Decrease
43 Kyoto University, Japan 79.59 70.44 248 -9.4% Decrease
44 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 73.68 70.31 218 -2.3% Decrease
45 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 62.30 69.66 320 14.5% Increase
46 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 90.31 69.59 275 -21.1% Decrease
47 Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), United States of America (USA) 61.91 69.37 354 14.7% Increase
48 Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), United States of America (USA) 79.18 69.09 239 -10.7% Decrease
49 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 74.99 67.43 342 -8.0% Decrease
50 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 56.64 67.12 194 21.3% Increase
51 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 71.73 66.39 185 -5.3% Decrease
52 Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), United States of America (USA) 86.90 65.11 214 -23.3% Decrease
53 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 63.50 63.75 191 2.8% Increase
54 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 54.12 62.80 200 18.8% Increase
55 The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), France 67.45 61.04 532 -7.4% Decrease
56 National Research Council (CNR), Italy 67.41 60.45 267 -8.2% Decrease
57 Rice University, United States of America (USA) 69.25 60.36 184 -10.8% Decrease
58 Purdue University, United States of America (USA) 61.09 59.69 208 0.0% Increase
59 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 61.34 58.64 284 -2.1% Decrease
60 RIKEN, Japan 69.82 58.44 229 -14.3% Decrease
61 U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), United States of America (USA) 61.12 58.03 169 -2.8% Decrease
62 Durham University, United Kingdom (UK) 41.69 57.64 137 41.5% Increase
63 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 68.55 57.59 204 -14.0% Decrease
64 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 62.87 57.33 277 -6.7% Decrease
65 Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (IIT), Israel 54.15 56.85 161 7.5% Increase
66 Osaka University, Japan 49.07 56.43 222 17.7% Increase
67 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 54.31 55.86 228 5.3% Increase
68 University of Paris-Saclay, France 53.91 55.81 447 6.0% Increase
69 Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), United States of America (USA) 59.33 55.81 209 -3.7% Decrease
70 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 59.33 54.84 306 -5.4% Decrease
71 National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan 63.40 53.72 173 -13.3% Decrease
72 Sorbonne University, France 55.71 53.44 548 -1.8% Decrease
73 European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland 63.17 53.18 345 -13.8% Decrease
74 University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK) 41.45 52.76 176 30.3% Increase
75 Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea 60.94 52.43 124 -11.9% Decrease
76 Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), United States of America (USA) 50.44 52.42 256 6.4% Increase
77 TU Dresden, Germany 44.33 50.21 210 15.9% Increase
78 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 39.47 49.51 248 28.4% Increase
79 Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), India 41.18 48.80 152 21.3% Increase
80 Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), South Korea 52.02 48.56 175 -4.4% Decrease
81 Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU), China 37.48 48.24 121 31.7% Increase
82 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 61.28 47.93 302 -19.9% Decrease
83 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia 31.18 47.87 101 57.2% Increase
84 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany 41.67 47.83 211 17.5% Increase
85 Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Spain 41.20 47.33 202 17.6% Increase
86 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), China 40.78 46.81 158 17.5% Increase
87 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 51.21 46.58 236 -6.9% Decrease
88 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 43.94 46.50 207 8.3% Increase
89 Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Spain 36.07 45.89 258 30.2% Increase
90 Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Netherlands 41.47 44.04 117 8.7% Increase
91 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 42.77 43.76 321 4.7% Increase
92 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 43.44 43.50 198 2.5% Increase
93 Institute for Basic Science (IBS), South Korea 32.69 42.87 172 34.2% Increase
94 Grenoble Alpes University (UGA), France 42.40 42.70 329 3.1% Increase
95 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 27.22 41.00 245 54.2% Increase
96 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU), United States of America (USA) 47.77 40.97 239 -12.2% Decrease
97 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 33.43 39.62 240 21.3% Increase
98 Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Japan 42.58 39.53 177 -5.0% Decrease
99 Beihang University (BUAA), China 28.45 39.26 132 41.3% Increase
100 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 42.21 38.42 234 -6.8% Decrease

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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