2018 Research Leaders: Leading academic institutions in physical sciences

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

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Position Institution Share 2016 Share 2017 Count 2017 Change in Adjusted Share* 2016–2017
1 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 168.58 217.65 621 27.6% Increase
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 237.56 214.30 726 -10.8% Decrease
3 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 223.48 210.58 606 -6.9% Decrease
4 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 182.62 188.27 609 1.9% Increase
5 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 162.40 145.72 507 -11.3% Decrease
6 Tsinghua University, China 136.19 145.34 600 5.5% Increase
7 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 124.32 145.04 400 15.3% Increase
8 Peking University (PKU), China 141.83 141.25 589 -1.6% Decrease
9 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 124.33 131.52 555 4.6% Increase
10 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 108.24 122.93 424 12.2% Increase
11 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 126.98 116.49 445 -9.3% Decrease
12 Nanjing University (NJU), China 121.33 115.11 373 -6.2% Decrease
13 Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore 98.22 113.93 268 14.6% Increase
14 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 92.52 112.45 344 20.1% Increase
15 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 98.56 108.53 359 8.8% Increase
16 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 109.30 104.58 397 -5.4% Decrease
17 University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), United States of America (USA) 90.98 103.90 468 12.9% Increase
18 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 104.15 103.39 432 -1.9% Decrease
19 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 96.98 99.80 236 1.7% Increase
20 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 101.08 91.36 285 -10.7% Decrease
21 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea 90.40 89.26 191 -2.4% Decrease
22 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 95.21 87.54 311 -9.1% Decrease
23 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 98.66 83.87 345 -16.0% Decrease
24 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 91.76 80.94 358 -12.8% Decrease
25 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 63.75 79.25 237 22.9% Increase
26 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 70.31 78.27 246 10.0% Increase
27 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 85.03 78.02 336 -9.3% Decrease
28 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 78.89 76.47 367 -4.2% Decrease
29 Soochow University, China 73.78 75.75 150 1.5% Increase
30 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 79.87 74.77 280 -7.5% Decrease
31 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 41.00 74.75 498 80.2% Increase
32 Kyoto University, Japan 70.44 74.31 245 4.3% Increase
33 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 67.12 72.15 225 6.2% Increase
34 Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea 70.74 71.26 263 -0.4% Decrease
35 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 54.84 70.51 339 27.1% Increase
36 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 66.39 64.78 205 -3.6% Decrease
37 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 69.59 64.47 274 -8.4% Decrease
38 Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), United States of America (USA) 65.11 62.23 195 -5.5% Decrease
39 Fudan University, China 71.81 61.46 175 -15.4% Decrease
40 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 71.03 59.40 228 -17.4% Decrease
41 Rice University, United States of America (USA) 60.36 59.03 227 -3.3% Decrease
42 Tohoku University, Japan 78.84 58.85 252 -26.2% Decrease
43 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany 63.83 58.48 235 -9.5% Decrease
44 Purdue University, United States of America (USA) 59.69 58.16 219 -3.7% Decrease
45 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 67.43 56.93 348 -16.6% Decrease
46 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 58.64 56.10 323 -5.5% Decrease
47 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 57.59 55.36 191 -5.0% Decrease
48 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 49.51 54.78 275 9.4% Increase
49 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 62.80 54.24 201 -14.6% Decrease
50 Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China 35.88 52.88 132 45.7% Increase
51 Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), India 48.80 52.47 180 6.3% Increase
52 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 69.66 52.18 305 -26.0% Decrease
53 Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU), China 48.24 51.25 118 5.0% Increase
54 Sorbonne University, France 53.44 50.84 561 -6.0% Decrease
55 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 47.93 50.67 317 4.5% Increase
56 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany 47.83 49.96 228 3.2% Increase
57 University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany 38.20 47.59 172 23.1% Increase
58 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 55.86 47.36 230 -16.2% Decrease
59 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia 47.87 47.20 93 -2.6% Decrease
60 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 57.33 46.94 267 -19.1% Decrease
61 University of Paris-Saclay, France 55.81 46.10 430 -18.4% Decrease
62 University of Hamburg (UHH), Germany 36.31 45.87 222 24.8% Increase
63 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 46.50 45.65 234 -3.0% Decrease
64 Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), South Korea 48.56 45.03 184 -8.4% Decrease
65 Durham University, United Kingdom (UK) 57.64 44.80 120 -23.2% Decrease
66 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), China 46.81 44.67 160 -5.7% Decrease
67 Grenoble Alpes University (UGA), France 42.70 43.95 338 1.7% Increase
68 Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Japan 39.53 43.89 179 9.7% Increase
69 Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea 52.43 43.55 118 -17.9% Decrease
70 TU Dresden, Germany 50.21 43.05 202 -15.3% Decrease
71 Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), South Korea 31.47 42.95 88 34.9% Increase
72 University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK) 52.76 42.82 187 -19.8% Decrease
73 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 46.58 42.57 221 -9.7% Decrease
74 Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Netherlands 44.04 42.04 102 -5.7% Decrease
75 Tel Aviv University (TAU), Israel 37.19 41.72 175 10.9% Increase
76 North Carolina State University (NCSU), United States of America (USA) 31.57 41.59 109 30.2% Increase
77 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 43.50 40.72 194 -7.5% Decrease
78 The University of Manchester (UoM), United Kingdom (UK) 33.94 39.72 248 15.7% Increase
79 Texas A&M University (TAMU), United States of America (USA) 27.54 39.72 259 42.5% Increase
80 Lund University (LU), Sweden 33.66 39.71 165 16.6% Increase
81 Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), Israel 34.97 39.64 94 12.1% Increase
82 Wuhan University (WHU), China 32.98 39.49 132 18.3% Increase
83 Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (IIT), Israel 56.85 39.42 151 -31.5% Decrease
84 State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY Stony Brook), United States of America (USA) 28.81 39.19 253 34.4% Increase
85 Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), Austria 32.75 38.70 145 16.8% Increase
86 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 43.76 37.91 326 -14.4% Decrease
87 Osaka University, Japan 56.43 37.65 180 -34.1% Decrease
88 University of Amsterdam (UvA), Netherlands 33.71 37.35 313 9.5% Increase
89 Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands 30.30 36.79 291 20.0% Increase
90 Beihang University (BUAA), China 39.26 36.34 189 -8.5% Decrease
91 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 38.42 36.32 253 -6.6% Decrease
92 Jilin University (JLU), China 25.51 36.01 88 39.5% Increase
93 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 39.62 35.67 246 -11.0% Decrease
94 Indian Institute of Science (IISc), India 32.75 34.71 91 4.7% Increase
95 Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), China 37.76 34.66 73 -9.3% Decrease
96 Arizona State University (ASU), United States of America (USA) 29.34 34.42 139 15.9% Increase
97 National Taiwan University (NTU), Taiwan 37.29 34.13 178 -9.5% Decrease
98 Leiden University, Netherlands 31.04 33.37 116 6.3% Increase
99 University of Southern California (USC), United States of America (USA) 32.12 33.28 66 2.4% Increase
100 University of Groningen (RUG), Netherlands 31.33 32.99 154 4.1% 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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