2018 tables: Institutions - physical sciences

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

Table criteria

# Institution Share 2016 Share 2017 Count 2017 Change in Adjusted Share 2016-2017*
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 237.47 214.16 670 -10.9%
2 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 223.27 210.44 548 -6.9%
3 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 182.24 188.11 559 2.0%
4 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 124.12 131.36 508 4.6%
5 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 92.52 112.47 343 20.1%
6 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 98.56 108.69 358 9.0%
7 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 109.10 104.40 336 -5.4%
8 University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), United States of America (USA) 90.77 103.72 413 12.9%
9 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 103.95 103.22 383 -1.9%
10 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States of America (USA) 92.07 96.00 521 3.0%
11 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 95.21 87.54 309 -9.1%
12 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 98.45 83.73 284 -16.0%
13 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 91.56 80.80 302 -12.8%
14 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 70.31 78.25 244 10.0%
15 Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), United States of America (USA) 69.38 77.80 385 10.8%
16 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 84.79 77.73 276 -9.4%
17 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 79.67 74.61 222 -7.4%
18 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 54.63 70.37 285 27.3%
19 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States of America (USA) 75.73 65.50 219 -14.5%
20 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 66.39 64.78 205 -3.6%
21 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 69.59 64.47 274 -8.5%
22 Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), United States of America (USA) 65.11 62.23 195 -5.5%
23 Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), United States of America (USA) 69.09 62.18 224 -11.1%
24 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 71.04 59.40 226 -17.4%
25 Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), United States of America (USA) 55.81 59.37 236 5.1%
26 Rice University, United States of America (USA) 60.36 59.02 225 -3.4%
27 Purdue University, United States of America (USA) 59.69 58.15 217 -3.7%
28 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 67.23 56.75 288 -16.6%
29 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 58.44 55.93 260 -5.4%
30 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 57.59 55.36 191 -5.0%
31 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 69.46 52.02 249 -26.0%
32 Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI), Canada 33.70 50.72 128 48.7%
33 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 47.72 50.51 263 4.6%
34 U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), United States of America (USA) 58.03 49.26 159 -16.1%
35 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 57.13 46.77 205 -19.1%
36 Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), United States of America (USA) 52.42 46.45 235 -12.4%
37 IBM Corporation, United States of America (USA) 33.54 41.71 83 22.9%
38 North Carolina State University (NCSU), United States of America (USA) 31.57 41.59 109 30.2%
39 Texas A&M University (TAMU), United States of America (USA) 27.33 39.55 200 43.0%
40 State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY Stony Brook), United States of America (USA) 28.60 39.03 192 34.8%
41 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 43.55 37.74 265 -14.4%
42 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 38.28 36.15 207 -6.7%
43 Arizona State University (ASU), United States of America (USA) 29.34 34.42 139 15.9%
44 University of Southern California (USC), United States of America (USA) 32.12 33.28 66 2.4%
45 Brown University, United States of America (USA) 27.86 32.45 135 15.1%
46 University of California, Irvine (UCI), United States of America (USA) 33.20 32.18 168 -4.2%
47 Sandia National Laboratories, United States of America (USA) 34.54 31.02 92 -11.3%
48 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU), United States of America (USA) 40.76 30.73 176 -25.5%
49 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States of America (USA) 32.90 30.57 195 -8.2%
50 University of Waterloo, Canada 34.70 29.82 80 -15.1%
51 McGill University, Canada 31.48 29.77 160 -6.6%
52 University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst), United States of America (USA) 31.91 29.49 149 -8.7%
53 Boston University (BU), United States of America (USA) 33.90 28.81 247 -16.0%
54 University of Florida (UF), United States of America (USA) 27.40 28.54 228 2.9%
55 Iowa State University, United States of America (USA) 25.68 28.30 148 8.9%
56 University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA) 33.46 28.28 170 -16.5%
57 The University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada 27.66 26.35 156 -5.9%
58 University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), United States of America (USA) 19.54 25.75 171 30.2%
59 Duke University, United States of America (USA) 30.48 25.71 143 -16.7%
60 University of Alberta (U of A), Canada 30.35 25.21 116 -17.9%
61 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), United States of America (USA) 18.85 23.98 67 25.7%
62 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), United States of America (USA) 21.47 23.86 140 9.9%
63 National Institutes of Health (NIH), United States of America (USA) 12.56 23.37 53 83.8%
64 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), United States of America (USA) 22.94 23.11 76 -0.5%
65 University of California, Riverside (UCR), United States of America (USA) 31.00 23.11 133 -26.3%
66 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), United States of America (USA) 19.18 22.81 51 17.5%
67 The University of Arizona (Arizona), United States of America (USA) 23.76 22.80 164 -5.2%
68 University of Virginia (UVA), United States of America (USA) 22.88 22.53 145 -2.7%
69 University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), United States of America (USA) 17.98 22.22 154 22.1%
70 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), United States of America (USA) 19.93 21.54 52 6.8%
71 Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), United States of America (USA) 22.03 21.45 135 -3.8%
72 University of Rochester (UR), United States of America (USA) 21.93 21.07 152 -5.1%
73 Michigan State University (MSU), United States of America (USA) 18.72 21.05 204 11.1%
74 The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas), United States of America (USA) 14.55 21.03 112 42.8%
75 Northeastern University (NEU), United States of America (USA) 20.25 20.87 145 1.9%
76 New York University (NYU), United States of America (USA) 23.79 20.78 124 -13.7%
77 Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), United States of America (USA) 25.60 20.57 62 -20.6%
78 University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), United States of America (USA) 35.74 19.67 122 -45.6%
79 The University of Utah (Utah), United States of America (USA) 18.43 19.17 54 2.8%
80 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), United States of America (USA) 17.67 19.03 139 6.4%
81 Vanderbilt University (VU), United States of America (USA) 15.18 18.83 134 22.6%
82 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), United States of America (USA) 23.39 18.55 56 -21.7%
83 University of Notre Dame (ND), United States of America (USA) 18.35 18.01 154 -3.0%
84 The City University of New York (CUNY), United States of America (USA) 20.61 17.23 86 -17.4%
85 University of Ottawa (uOttawa), Canada 6.31 16.40 44 156.9%
86 Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), United States of America (USA) 8.35 16.20 78 91.9%
87 University of Houston (UH), United States of America (USA) 16.90 16.09 69 -5.9%
88 University of Central Florida (UCF), United States of America (USA) 12.58 15.59 38 22.4%
89 National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), United States of America (USA) 16.03 14.72 43 -9.3%
90 University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), United States of America (USA) 17.90 14.65 122 -19.1%
91 University of Connecticut (UConn), United States of America (USA) 10.58 14.37 38 34.2%
92 The University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK), United States of America (USA) 17.08 14.14 166 -18.2%
93 Florida State University (FSU), United States of America (USA) 15.53 14.14 164 -10.0%
94 University of Oregon (UO), United States of America (USA) 13.62 13.43 106 -2.5%
95 National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico 13.97 13.40 79 -5.2%
96 Indiana University (IU), United States of America (USA) 13.01 12.99 142 -1.3%
97 Smithsonian Institution, United States of America (USA) 17.46 12.99 111 -26.5%
98 Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), United States of America (USA) 19.79 12.87 38 -35.7%
99 Tufts University, United States of America (USA) 8.29 12.62 122 50.5%
100 University at Buffalo, The State University of New York (SUNY UB), United States of America (USA) 21.29 12.58 63 -41.6%

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, 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.