2017 tables: Institutions - physical sciences - corporate

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

Table criteria

# Institution Share 2015 Share 2016 Count 2016 Change in Adjusted Share* 2015–2016
1 IBM Corporation, United States of America (USA) 53.18 33.54 80 -35.5%
2 Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), Japan 16.55 15.79 29 -2.4%
3 Samsung Group, South Korea 17.67 15.30 56 -11.4%
4 Microsoft Corporation, United States of America (USA) 4.66 9.94 44 118.6%
5 Toyota Group, Japan 4.64 7.62 13 68.2%
6 Alphabet Inc., United States of America (USA) 2.59 7.49 14 195.7%
7 Toshiba Corporation, Japan 5.50 7.30 13 35.9%
8 HP Inc., United States of America (USA) 0.49 6.57 9 1264.8%
9 Thales S.A., France 4.31 6.08 44 44.2%
10 Western Digital Corporation, United States of America (USA) 2.08 5.23 13 157.3%
11 Hitachi, Ltd., Japan 5.01 4.03 17 -17.7%
12 HRL Laboratories LLC, United States of America (USA) 4.32 3.75 7 -11.0%
13 FiberHome Technologies Group, China 3.72 3.37 27 -7.4%
14 China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited (CSSC), China 4.01 2.99 27 -23.6%
15 BASF SE, Germany 2.90 2.93 27 3.5%
16 JEOL Ltd., Japan 1.18 2.68 8 131.2%
17 Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., Japan 1.95 2.66 4 40.0%
18 Center for Nanotechnology GmbH (CeNTech GmbH), Germany 0.62 2.56 12 323.3%
19 Anglo American plc, United Kingdom (UK) 3.30 2.52 10 -21.8%
20 National Metrology and Testing (LNE), France 1.23 2.26 10 88.5%
21 Intel Corporation, United States of America (USA) 2.54 2.26 24 -9.0%
22 LG Corporation, South Korea 0.37 2.24 6 515.7%
23 Applied Materials, Inc., United States of America (USA) 0.53 2.12 22 308.3%
24 Foxconn Technology Group, Taiwan 1.72 2.10 12 24.9%
25 Soraa Inc., United States of America (USA) 1.00 2.00 2 104.7%
26 Euclid TechLabs LLC, United States of America (USA) 0.12 1.99 6 1628.1%
27 GNS Science, New Zealand 0.63 1.87 10 204.6%
28 DowDuPont Inc., United States of America (USA) 0.70 1.86 11 171.7%
29 Northrop Grumman Corporation, United States of America (USA) 0.35 1.75 17 413.9%
30 Hysitron, Inc., United States of America (USA) 0.88 1.57 9 83.0%
31 Firmenich International SA, Switzerland 1.50 2 N/A
32 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., United States of America (USA) 0.67 1.48 12 126.4%
33 China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), China 1.83 1.41 5 -21.0%
34 Formosa Plastics Group, Taiwan 1.79 1.40 5 -20.0%
35 NEC Corporation, Japan 0.60 1.36 7 132.9%
36 Panasonic Corporation, Japan 1.88 1.35 5 -26.5%
37 Tamura Corporation, Japan 0.70 1.27 5 85.2%
38 CrayoNano AS, Norway 0.15 1.25 5 756.2%
39 Robert Bosch GmbH, Germany 0.47 1.25 15 173.6%
40 Fujitsu Ltd., Japan 1.17 1.25 2 9.7%
41 Shanghai Jiahua Poly Battery Technology Co., Ltd., China 1.23 3 N/A
42 Mitsubishi Group, Japan 2.60 1.22 5 -52.1%
43 Sinopec Corporation, China 0.18 1.20 6 564.6%
44 General Atomics, United States of America (USA) 3.20 1.20 12 -61.7%
45 Nokia Corporation, Finland 2.03 1.15 10 -42.0%
46 Bruker Corporation, United States of America (USA) 1.26 1.14 16 -7.2%
47 Xerox Corporation, United States of America (USA) 4.22 1.10 10 -73.3%
48 Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies (SGT), United States of America (USA) 0.13 1.07 3 777.3%
49 Lockheed Martin Corporation, United States of America (USA) 1.89 1.03 11 -44.1%
50 ams-OSRAM AG, Austria 0.50 1.02 4 108.1%

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.