2018 tables: Institutions - physical sciences

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

Table criteria

Request a badge Export CSV
# Institution Share 2016 Share 2017 Count 2017 Change in Adjusted Share* 2016–2017
1 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 515.12 516.76 1609 -0.9%
2 Max Planck Society, Germany 318.30 311.66 1087 -3.2%
3 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 305.16 276.42 1622 -10.5%
4 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 168.59 217.70 621 27.6%
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 237.36 214.14 672 -10.8%
6 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 223.27 210.43 548 -6.9%
7 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 182.41 188.11 559 1.9%
8 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 193.46 186.99 844 -4.5%
9 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 162.40 145.72 507 -11.3%
10 Tsinghua University, China 136.19 145.34 600 5.5%
11 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 124.32 145.04 400 15.3%
12 Peking University (PKU), China 141.83 141.25 589 -1.6%
13 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 124.12 131.36 508 4.6%
14 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 108.24 122.95 426 12.2%
15 National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy 118.97 117.04 647 -2.8%
16 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 126.98 116.49 445 -9.3%
17 Nanjing University (NJU), China 121.33 115.11 373 -6.2%
18 Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore 98.22 113.93 268 14.6%
19 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 92.52 112.45 344 20.1%
20 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 98.56 108.53 359 8.8%
21 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 109.10 104.42 338 -5.4%
22 University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), United States of America (USA) 90.77 103.74 415 12.9%
23 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 103.95 103.24 385 -1.8%
24 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 96.98 99.80 236 1.7%
25 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States of America (USA) 92.07 95.99 521 3.0%
26 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 101.08 91.36 285 -10.7%
27 Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Russia 91.32 90.94 566 -1.6%
28 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 82.37 90.38 625 8.4%
29 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea 90.40 89.26 191 -2.4%
30 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 95.21 87.55 311 -9.1%
31 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 98.45 83.72 284 -16.0%
32 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 91.56 80.79 302 -12.8%
33 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 63.75 79.25 237 22.9%
34 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 70.31 78.27 246 10.0%
35 Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), United States of America (USA) 69.38 77.79 386 10.8%
36 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 84.79 77.73 276 -9.4%
37 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 78.89 76.47 367 -4.2%
38 Soochow University, China 73.78 75.75 150 1.5%
39 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 41.00 74.75 498 80.2%
40 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 79.67 74.61 222 -7.4%
41 Kyoto University, Japan 70.44 74.31 245 4.2%
42 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 67.12 72.15 225 6.2%
43 Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea 70.74 71.26 263 -0.4%
44 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 54.63 70.36 285 27.3%
45 Leibniz Association, Germany 75.30 66.32 222 -13.0%
46 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States of America (USA) 75.73 65.50 219 -14.5%
47 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 66.39 64.78 205 -3.6%
48 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 69.59 64.47 274 -8.4%
49 Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), United States of America (USA) 65.11 62.23 195 -5.5%
50 Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), United States of America (USA) 69.09 62.18 224 -11.0%
51 RIKEN, Japan 58.44 61.52 260 4.0%
52 Fudan University, China 71.81 61.46 175 -15.4%
53 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 71.04 59.40 228 -17.4%
54 Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), United States of America (USA) 55.81 59.37 236 5.1%
55 Rice University, United States of America (USA) 60.36 59.03 227 -3.4%
56 Tohoku University, Japan 78.63 58.69 193 -26.2%
57 Purdue University, United States of America (USA) 59.69 58.16 219 -3.7%
58 National Research Council (CNR), Italy 60.45 57.20 264 -6.5%
59 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 67.23 56.77 290 -16.5%
60 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 58.44 55.94 262 -5.4%
61 European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland 53.18 55.47 394 3.1%
62 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 57.59 55.36 191 -5.0%
63 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 49.51 54.78 275 9.3%
64 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 62.80 54.24 201 -14.6%
65 Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China 35.88 52.88 132 45.7%
66 Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), India 48.80 52.47 180 6.3%
67 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 69.46 52.02 249 -26.0%
68 Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU), China 48.24 51.25 118 5.0%
69 Sorbonne University, France 53.47 50.84 561 -6.0%
70 Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI), Canada 33.70 50.72 128 48.7%
71 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 47.72 50.51 263 4.6%
72 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany 47.83 49.96 228 3.2%
73 Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Spain 47.33 49.69 211 3.8%
74 U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), United States of America (USA) 58.03 49.26 159 -16.1%
75 National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan 53.74 48.93 172 -10.0%
76 The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), France 61.27 48.19 509 -22.3%
77 University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany 38.20 47.59 172 23.1%
78 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 55.86 47.36 230 -16.2%
79 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia 47.87 47.20 93 -2.6%
80 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 57.13 46.78 207 -19.1%
81 Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), United States of America (USA) 52.42 46.45 235 -12.4%
82 University of Hamburg (UHH), Germany 36.31 45.87 222 24.8%
83 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 46.50 45.65 234 -3.0%
84 Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), South Korea 48.56 45.03 184 -8.4%
85 Durham University, United Kingdom (UK) 57.64 44.80 120 -23.2%
86 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), China 46.81 44.67 160 -5.7%
87 Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Japan 39.53 43.89 179 9.7%
88 Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea 52.43 43.55 118 -17.9%
89 TU Dresden, Germany 50.21 43.05 202 -15.3%
90 Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), South Korea 31.47 42.95 88 34.9%
91 University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK) 52.76 42.82 187 -19.8%
92 Institute for Basic Science (IBS), South Korea 42.87 42.81 177 -1.3%
93 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 46.58 42.57 221 -9.7%
94 Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Netherlands 44.04 42.04 102 -5.7%
95 Tel Aviv University (TAU), Israel 37.19 41.72 175 10.9%
96 IBM Corporation, United States of America (USA) 33.54 41.71 83 22.9%
97 North Carolina State University (NCSU), United States of America (USA) 31.57 41.59 109 30.2%
98 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 43.50 40.72 194 -7.5%
99 The University of Manchester (UoM), United Kingdom (UK) 33.94 39.72 248 15.7%
100 Lund University (LU), Sweden 33.66 39.71 165 16.6%

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.


Numerical information only is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.