2018 Research Leaders: Leading institutions in Nature & Science

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

Table criteria

Position Institution Share 2016 Share 2017 Count 2017 Change in Adjusted Share* 2016–2017
1 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 82.77 78.59 235 0.6% Increase
2 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 42.19 50.20 142 26.1% Increase
3 Max Planck Society, Germany 54.48 36.11 124 -29.8% Decrease
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 37.75 32.04 162 -10.1% Decrease
5 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 20.99 19.55 65 -1.3% Decrease
6 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 23.26 18.76 79 -14.5% Decrease
7 University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), United States of America (USA) 13.05 18.08 54 46.8% Increase
8 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 21.97 16.81 83 -18.9% Decrease
9 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 19.74 16.47 78 -11.6% Decrease
10 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 15.42 15.83 74 8.8% Increase
11 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 11.34 15.21 83 42.1% Increase
12 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 7.84 14.77 59 99.6% Increase
13 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 11.30 14.68 41 37.7% Increase
14 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 11.12 14.18 40 35.0% Increase
15 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 15.29 13.80 50 -4.4% Decrease
16 The Rockefeller University, United States of America (USA) 12.65 13.55 28 13.4% Increase
17 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 14.18 12.96 60 -3.2% Decrease
18 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 7.16 12.58 74 86.1% Increase
19 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 12.45 12.46 42 6.0% Increase
20 National Institutes of Health (NIH), United States of America (USA) 14.34 12.28 56 -9.3% Decrease
21 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 18.21 12.21 127 -29.0% Decrease
22 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 8.59 12.07 42 48.9% Increase
23 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 7.82 12.05 30 63.2% Increase
24 The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern Medical Center), United States of America (USA) 10.98 11.78 19 13.7% Increase
25 Scripps Research, United States of America (USA) 9.33 11.62 28 31.9% Increase
26 New York University (NYU), United States of America (USA) 9.76 11.51 43 24.9% Increase
27 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 9.75 11.32 71 23.0% Increase
28 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 15.09 11.17 71 -21.6% Decrease
29 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), United Kingdom (UK) 15.13 11.14 26 -22.0% Decrease
30 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 11.41 10.97 54 1.8% Increase
31 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), United States of America (USA) 9.95 10.84 37 15.4% Increase
32 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 7.58 10.77 34 50.5% Increase
33 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 9.13 9.88 55 14.7% Increase
34 Tsinghua University, China 10.83 9.88 35 -3.4% Decrease
35 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), United States of America (USA) 11.50 8.85 35 -18.5% Decrease
36 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 12.43 8.65 29 -26.3% Decrease
37 The University of Manchester (UoM), United Kingdom (UK) 9.37 7.49 23 -15.3% Decrease
38 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 8.56 7.48 18 -7.5% Decrease
39 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 5.83 7.46 37 35.7% Increase
40 HHMI Janelia Research Campus, United States of America (USA) 5.29 7.26 14 45.3% Increase
41 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 3.68 7.21 28 107.8% Increase
42 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 5.64 6.92 43 30.0% Increase
43 RIKEN, Japan 6.31 6.71 24 12.7% Increase
44 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States of America (USA) 5.26 6.64 51 33.7% Increase
45 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States of America (USA) 7.70 6.49 43 -10.7% Decrease
46 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 6.28 6.34 26 7.0% Increase
47 The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, United States of America (USA) 0.49 6.12 28 1,211.9% Increase
48 Emory University, United States of America (USA) 4.03 6.08 14 59.8% Increase
49 University of Basel (UB), Switzerland 7.73 5.94 21 -18.6% Decrease
50 The Francis Crick Institute, United Kingdom (UK) 2.68 5.92 15 133.6% Increase
51 Duke University, United States of America (USA) 5.61 5.76 32 8.7% Increase
52 The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (UK) 4.32 5.71 31 40.1% Increase
53 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 7.35 5.69 38 -17.9% Decrease
54 Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), United States of America (USA) 3.86 5.63 35 54.3% Increase
55 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), United States of America (USA) 5.27 5.59 38 12.2% Increase
56 Kyoto University, Japan 6.06 5.58 21 -2.4% Decrease
57 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 1.73 5.57 19 240.4% Increase
58 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 8.76 5.38 44 -34.9% Decrease
59 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States of America (USA) 3.38 5.29 18 66.0% Increase
60 Peking University (PKU), China 4.60 5.19 30 19.7% Increase
61 The University of Utah (Utah), United States of America (USA) 1.97 5.10 21 175.0% Increase
62 Wellcome Sanger Institute, United Kingdom (UK) 2.75 4.91 23 89.5% Increase
63 Vienna Biocenter (VBC), Austria 2.83 4.80 11 79.9% Increase
64 University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), United States of America (USA) 1.60 4.59 40 203.2% Increase
65 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU), United States of America (USA) 6.04 4.49 34 -21.2% Decrease
66 Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), Netherlands 2.12 4.41 12 120.6% Increase
67 University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 3.66 4.16 33 20.4% Increase
68 Leibniz Association, Germany 4.65 4.15 53 -5.4% Decrease
69 Salk Institute for Biological Studies (Salk), United States of America (USA) 4.12 4.09 13 5.1% Increase
70 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 2.58 4.05 55 66.3% Increase
71 Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), United States of America (USA) 4.14 3.98 16 1.8% Increase
72 University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), United States of America (USA) 3.28 3.97 42 28.3% Increase
73 Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Spain 3.67 3.92 19 13.3% Increase
74 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 8.61 3.92 33 -51.8% Decrease
75 Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), United States of America (USA) 4.13 3.87 27 -0.7% Decrease
76 European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Germany 7.53 3.83 31 -46.1% Decrease
77 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 4.39 3.81 25 -8.0% Decrease
78 Novartis AG, Switzerland 5.75 3.80 14 -29.9% Decrease
79 University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK) 3.87 3.79 14 3.8% Increase
80 Mount Sinai Health System (MSHS), United States of America (USA) 5.71 3.78 21 -29.8% Decrease
81 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 3.58 3.77 14 11.6% Increase
82 National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Italy 2.31 3.75 25 71.7% Increase
83 Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands 2.34 3.69 24 66.9% Increase
84 Merck & Co., Inc., United States of America (USA) 0.90 3.67 8 329.7% Increase
85 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 7.56 3.65 43 -48.8% Decrease
86 University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA) 6.53 3.55 23 -42.5% Decrease
87 The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia 1.66 3.52 30 124.5% Increase
88 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (St. Jude), United States of America (USA) 1.90 3.49 12 94.6% Increase
89 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 5.72 3.46 37 -35.9% Decrease
90 University of Liverpool, United Kingdom (UK) 1.32 3.28 16 163.2% Increase
91 Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (IIT), Israel 2.96 3.28 9 17.2% Increase
92 Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), Israel 1.38 3.27 18 150.4% Increase
93 Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland 2.07 3.23 6 65.7% Increase
94 Karolinska Institute (KI), Sweden 3.65 3.20 23 -6.9% Decrease
95 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 2.35 3.13 19 40.7% Increase
96 Pasteur Institute, France 1.30 3.02 20 146.8% Increase
97 IBM, United States of America (USA) 0.50 3.02 6 538.4% Increase
98 University of California, Irvine (UCI), United States of America (USA) 2.49 2.99 20 27.6% Increase
99 Stockholm University, Sweden 1.32 2.94 32 136.5% Increase
100 Lund University (LU), Sweden 0.78 2.92 14 297.0% 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.