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 Max Planck Society, Germany 318.38 311.73 1,088 -3.2%
2 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 307.10 277.20 1,620 -10.8%
3 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 193.46 186.90 842 -4.5%
4 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 162.40 145.72 507 -11.3%
5 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 124.32 144.79 397 15.1%
6 National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy 118.97 116.90 645 -2.9%
7 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 126.98 116.49 445 -9.3%
8 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 101.08 91.36 285 -10.7%
9 Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Russia 91.32 90.92 564 -1.6%
10 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 82.37 90.33 622 8.4%
11 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 78.89 76.44 365 -4.3%
12 Leibniz Association, Germany 75.30 66.32 222 -13.0%
13 National Research Council (CNR), Italy 60.46 57.20 264 -6.5%
14 European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland 53.18 55.38 392 2.9%
15 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 62.78 54.22 201 -14.7%
16 Sorbonne University, France 53.47 50.84 561 -6.0%
17 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany 47.83 49.96 228 3.2%
18 Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Spain 47.33 49.69 211 3.8%
19 The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), France 61.26 48.17 507 -22.3%
20 University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany 38.20 47.59 172 23.1%
21 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 55.84 47.34 230 -16.2%
22 University of Hamburg (UHH), Germany 36.31 45.83 220 24.7%
23 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 46.50 45.67 235 -2.9%
24 Durham University, United Kingdom (UK) 57.64 44.80 120 -23.2%
25 TU Dresden, Germany 50.21 43.05 202 -15.3%
26 University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK) 52.76 42.82 185 -19.8%
27 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 46.58 42.57 221 -9.7%
28 Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Netherlands 44.04 42.30 103 -5.1%
29 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 43.50 40.72 194 -7.5%
30 The University of Manchester (UoM), United Kingdom (UK) 33.94 39.72 248 15.7%
31 Lund University (LU), Sweden 33.66 39.71 165 16.6%
32 Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), Austria 32.75 38.70 143 16.8%
33 University of Amsterdam (UvA), Netherlands 33.71 37.35 313 9.5%
34 Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands 30.30 36.79 291 20.0%
35 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 39.62 35.67 246 -11.0%
36 University of Paris-Sud (UPSud), France 41.48 35.20 393 -16.2%
37 Leiden University, Netherlands 31.04 33.37 116 6.3%
38 University of Groningen (RUG), Netherlands 31.33 32.99 154 4.1%
39 Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium 32.87 32.64 88 -1.9%
40 RWTH Aachen University (RWTH Aachen), Germany 30.69 31.96 249 2.9%
41 Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Netherlands 36.23 31.82 72 -13.2%
42 The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (UK) 27.50 31.67 241 13.8%
43 Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Spain 45.89 31.48 257 -32.2%
44 University of Basel (UB), Switzerland 27.87 31.11 69 10.3%
45 Aalto University, Finland 35.50 30.88 171 -14.1%
46 Uppsala University (UU), Sweden 32.59 30.71 181 -6.9%
47 King's College London (KCL), United Kingdom (UK) 31.44 30.17 149 -5.2%
48 University of Bonn (Uni Bonn), Germany 24.13 29.46 171 20.6%
49 University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 28.47 29.42 260 2.1%
50 Radboud University Nijmegen (RU), Netherlands 31.92 29.21 267 -9.6%
51 Grenoble Alpes University (UGA), France 26.81 29.08 330 7.2%
52 Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark 30.13 28.65 88 -6.0%
53 University of Barcelona (UB), Spain 28.47 28.49 160 -1.1%
54 University of Regensburg (UR), Germany 31.82 28.44 56 -11.7%
55 National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Italy 35.17 28.35 134 -20.4%
56 The University of Warwick (Warwick), United Kingdom (UK) 23.44 28.26 209 19.2%
57 Chalmers University of Technology (Chalmers), Sweden 30.02 28.17 78 -7.3%
58 Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland 29.60 28.04 176 -6.4%
59 University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK) 15.15 27.98 191 82.5%
60 Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin), Germany 25.21 27.92 125 9.4%
61 University of Göttingen, Germany 17.91 26.32 129 45.2%
62 KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden 25.11 25.96 236 2.1%
63 University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany 30.26 25.88 95 -15.5%
64 Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS), Czech Republic 19.01 25.38 182 31.9%
65 University of Glasgow, United Kingdom (UK) 23.04 24.78 214 6.3%
66 Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), Poland 24.53 24.51 266 -1.3%
67 The University of Nottingham (UoN), United Kingdom (UK) 24.14 24.51 64 0.3%
68 University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain 23.21 24.49 111 4.3%
69 Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), Russia 23.86 23.42 290 -3.0%
70 Université PSL, France 20.88 23.16 278 9.6%
71 Linköping University (LiU), Sweden 14.69 23.09 58 55.4%
72 Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), Austria 17.69 22.75 183 27.0%
73 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), United Kingdom (UK) 21.63 22.49 355 2.8%
74 University of Lyon, France 24.78 21.95 210 -12.5%
75 University of Bern (UniBE), Switzerland 19.98 21.69 168 7.3%
76 Aarhus University (AU), Denmark 27.49 21.63 66 -22.3%
77 Sapienza University of Rome, Italy 19.29 21.60 291 10.6%
78 Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), Germany 22.30 21.18 59 -6.2%
79 Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), Italy 20.34 21.14 87 2.7%
80 University of Freiburg (Uni Freiburg), Germany 15.83 20.78 121 29.7%
81 University of Lisbon (ULISBOA), Portugal 19.44 20.70 141 5.3%
82 Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Italy 20.74 20.66 78 -1.6%
83 University of Valencia (UV), Spain 20.68 20.65 215 -1.3%
84 Stockholm University, Sweden 11.13 20.52 201 82.1%
85 Humboldt University of Berlin (HU Berlin), Germany 23.87 20.46 175 -15.3%
86 University of Vienna, Austria 18.83 20.24 72 6.2%
87 Technical University of Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt), Germany 22.08 20.16 87 -9.8%
88 University of Stuttgart, Germany 27.53 20.15 73 -27.7%
89 The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom (UK) 22.19 19.87 136 -11.5%
90 University of Cologne (UoC), Germany 21.01 19.70 67 -7.4%
91 University of Paris, France 21.50 19.43 330 -10.7%
92 University of Münster (WWU), Germany 15.45 19.39 89 24.0%
93 NWO-I, the Institutes Organisation of NWO, Netherlands 18.68 19.16 265 1.3%
94 Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Spain 14.42 18.94 64 29.8%
95 National Research Center Kurchatov Institute (NRCKI), Russia 21.40 18.73 284 -13.5%
96 University of Exeter, United Kingdom (UK) 12.61 18.21 49 42.7%
97 Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), Germany 13.57 17.94 80 30.7%
98 University of Liverpool, United Kingdom (UK) 20.91 17.65 199 -16.6%
99 University of Warsaw (UW), Poland 18.28 17.32 148 -6.4%
100 Ulm University, Germany 15.97 17.32 63 7.1%

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, 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/.

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 2021 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.