2018 tables: Institutions - Earth & environmental sciences - corporate

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 GNS Science, New Zealand 8.88 14.91 44 75.7%
2 Science Systems and Applications, Inc. (SSAI), United States of America (USA) 6.34 5.65 28 -6.7%
3 NorthWest Research Associates, Inc. (NWRA), United States of America (USA) 1.59 4.98 23 226.6%
4 GATS Inc., United States of America (USA) 2.22 4.58 13 116.1%
5 National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd. (NIWA), New Zealand 5.56 2.93 31 -44.9%
6 Equinor ASA, Norway 0.43 2.69 6 555.7%
7 KWH Water B.V., Netherlands 2.31 2.62 9 19.0%
8 South Australian Water Corporation (SA Water), Australia 1.26 2.23 6 85.6%
9 Norwegian Research Centre AS (NORCE), Norway 3.08 2.06 26 -29.8%
10 Royal Dutch Shell plc (Shell), Netherlands 4.35 1.96 9 -52.8%
11 Schlumberger Limited, United States of America (USA) 0.77 1.92 6 161.3%
12 Jacobs, United States of America (USA) 1.45 1.87 15 35.6%
13 Aerodyne Research, Inc. (ARI), United States of America (USA) 1.91 1.73 14 -5.0%
14 Exxon Mobil Corporation (ExxonMobil), United States of America (USA) 4.59 1.49 5 -66.1%
15 Chevron Corporation, United States of America (USA) 2.12 1.35 8 -33.2%
16 Alphabet Inc., United States of America (USA) 0.47 1.32 4 192.0%
17 Danaher Corporation, United States of America (USA) 0.43 1.17 4 184.6%
18 Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc. (AER), United States of America (USA) 3.83 1.14 6 -68.8%
19 BP plc, United Kingdom (UK) 0.17 1.11 5 597.8%
20 ERT, Inc., United States of America (USA) 0.20 1.10 4 480.0%
21 ION Geophysical Corporation, United States of America (USA) 0.25 1.09 3 354.3%
22 I.M. Systems Group, Inc. (IMSG), United States of America (USA) 1.04 1.04 18 4.4%
23 BASF SE, Germany 1.80 1.01 4 -41.3%
24 WeatherTiger, LLC, United States of America (USA) 0.75 1.00 1 39.5%
24 Bluewater Bio International (BWB), United Kingdom (UK) 1.00 1 N/A
24 Clay Technology AB, Sweden 1.00 1 N/A
25 Bruker Corporation, United States of America (USA) 0.38 0.98 4 166.2%
26 Geosyntec Consultants, United States of America (USA) 0.08 0.94 5 1074.7%
27 Anglo American plc, United Kingdom (UK) 0.18 0.92 3 423.1%
28 Trussell Technologies, Inc., United States of America (USA) 0.09 0.90 2 916.9%
29 China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), China 0.41 0.90 11 127.3%
30 Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB), Austria 0.53 0.87 2 69.7%
31 DowDuPont Inc., United States of America (USA) 2.53 0.84 4 -65.2%
32 Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras), Brazil 0.80 0.81 2 5.9%
33 South East Water Corporation, Australia 0.42 0.80 18 98.7%
34 Stantec Inc., Canada 0.20 0.79 3 314.1%
35 China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited (CSSC), China 0.31 0.79 41 164.6%
36 Carbios SAS, France 0.77 2 N/A
37 American Water, United States of America (USA) 0.77 2 N/A
38 Soller Environmental, LLC, United States of America (USA) 0.71 3 N/A
39 Agilent Technologies, Inc., United States of America (USA) 0.11 0.68 4 543.4%
40 Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS), United States of America (USA) 0.28 0.68 5 151.7%
41 Unilever, United Kingdom (UK) 0.43 0.68 2 65.6%
42 Wellington Laboratories Inc., Canada 0.67 3 N/A
43 Envirogen Technologies Inc., United States of America (USA) 0.67 1 N/A
44 Lanxess AG, Germany 0.65 2 N/A
45 PerkinElmer, Inc., United States of America (USA) 0.64 3 N/A
46 Volcanic Basin Petroleum Research (VBPR), Norway 0.20 0.64 3 240.3%
46 AstraZeneca plc, United Kingdom (UK) 0.64 0.64 3 5.1%
47 Melbourne Water Corporation, Australia 0.82 0.63 18 -19.2%
48 Hazen and Sawyer, D.P.C., United States of America (USA) 0.17 0.63 2 294.6%
49 Spheryx, Inc., United States of America (USA) 0.63 1 N/A
50 Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), United States of America (USA) 0.62 2 N/A

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.