2018 Research Leaders: Leading countries/territories in Earth & environmental sciences

The 2018 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017.

Table criteria

Position Country/territory Share 2016 Share 2017 Count 2017 Change in Adjusted Share* 2016–2017
1 United States of America (USA) 2956.83 2840.79 4037 0.5% Increase
2 China 915.47 1046.95 1538 19.6% Increase
3 United Kingdom (UK) 524.26 480.77 1031 -4.1% Decrease
4 Germany 466.78 363.22 805 -18.6% Decrease
5 France 373.34 327.26 739 -8.3% Decrease
6 Canada 285.71 273.83 551 0.3% Increase
7 Australia 308.22 273.56 564 -7.2% Decrease
8 Japan 301.88 255.79 428 -11.4% Decrease
9 Switzerland 196.69 193.02 434 2.7% Increase
10 Netherlands 129.97 133.85 315 7.7% Increase
11 Italy 120.84 121.77 292 5.4% Increase
12 Spain 116.16 90.78 203 -18.2% Decrease
13 Sweden 86.80 84.80 242 2.2% Increase
14 South Korea 82.21 83.13 135 5.8% Increase
15 Norway 75.31 83.12 223 15.5% Increase
16 Denmark 70.13 77.77 191 16.0% Increase
17 New Zealand 42.50 54.86 135 35.0% Increase
18 Belgium 54.97 51.93 153 -1.2% Decrease
19 Israel 52.45 51.68 92 3.1% Increase
20 India 59.06 44.32 79 -21.5% Decrease
21 Singapore 43.15 41.18 85 -0.2% Decrease
22 Taiwan 42.38 40.23 83 -0.7% Decrease
23 Brazil 35.41 33.85 87 0.0% Increase
24 Austria 34.72 31.18 107 -6.1% Decrease
25 Finland 37.98 29.59 75 -18.5% Decrease
26 Czech Republic 25.66 28.39 68 15.7% Increase
27 Russia 29.70 26.17 82 -7.8% Decrease
28 Chile 15.41 15.33 47 4.1% Increase
29 Saudi Arabia 21.60 14.98 46 -27.4% Decrease
30 Ireland 14.86 13.43 44 -5.5% Decrease
31 Portugal 19.68 13.27 42 -29.5% Decrease
32 South Africa 16.96 12.41 52 -23.4% Decrease
33 Poland 7.62 9.76 34 34.0% Increase
34 Mexico 12.49 9.52 36 -20.2% Decrease
35 Greece 12.84 8.22 37 -33.1% Decrease
36 Argentina 9.52 8.17 36 -10.2% Decrease
37 Iceland 9.96 7.98 27 -16.1% Decrease
38 Turkey 7.49 7.88 23 10.0% Increase
39 Croatia 1.00 6.35 12 564.7% Increase
40 Iran 2.99 5.60 11 95.8% Increase
41 Colombia 6.68 5.36 18 -16.0% Decrease
42 Indonesia 6.37 5.20 25 -14.7% Decrease
43 United Arab Emirates 1.57 4.68 10 212.2% Increase
44 Thailand 5.57 4.04 8 -24.2% Decrease
45 Ecuador 3.88 3.64 15 -1.7% Decrease
46 Vietnam 1.86 3.19 11 79.5% Increase
47 Luxembourg 4.41 3.01 12 -28.7% Decrease
48 Peru 3.94 2.71 13 -28.0% Decrease
49 Hungary 4.29 2.54 13 -38.2% Decrease
50 Malaysia 2.57 2.53 15 2.8% 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.