2019 Research Leaders: Leading academic institutions in Nature & Science

The 2019 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2018.

Table criteria

Position Institution Share 2017 Share 2018 Count 2018 Change in Adjusted Share* 2017–2018
1 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 78.59 71.87 223 -14.8% Decrease
2 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 50.20 40.22 109 -25.3% Decrease
3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 32.04 38.62 142 12.4% Increase
4 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 16.81 26.38 93 46.2% Increase
5 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 10.97 21.21 71 80.1% Increase
6 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 11.17 19.89 78 66.0% Increase
7 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 13.80 19.86 66 34.2% Increase
8 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 19.55 19.67 65 -6.2% Decrease
9 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 16.47 19.28 87 9.1% Increase
10 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 14.18 19.23 55 26.4% Increase
11 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 18.76 16.95 65 -15.8% Decrease
12 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 12.96 16.51 59 18.8% Increase
13 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 11.32 16.02 66 31.9% Increase
14 University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), United States of America (USA) 18.08 15.99 58 -17.6% Decrease
15 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 12.07 14.78 73 14.1% Increase
16 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 12.46 12.61 49 -5.7% Decrease
17 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 8.65 12.27 41 32.2% Increase
18 The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern Medical Center), United States of America (USA) 11.78 11.24 21 -11.1% Decrease
19 The Rockefeller University, United States of America (USA) 13.55 11.18 31 -23.1% Decrease
20 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 12.58 10.89 61 -19.3% Decrease
21 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 14.68 10.68 43 -32.2% Decrease
22 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 9.88 10.56 47 -0.4% Decrease
23 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 10.77 10.52 39 -9.0% Decrease
24 University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), United States of America (USA) 3.97 10.24 45 140.7% Increase
25 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), United States of America (USA) 8.85 10.08 37 6.2% Increase
26 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 3.81 9.88 40 141.5% Increase
27 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 12.05 9.78 25 -24.4% Decrease
28 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 3.46 9.43 45 154.1% Increase
29 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 7.48 9.19 32 14.5% Increase
30 Duke University, United States of America (USA) 5.76 9.15 32 48.2% Increase
31 Tsinghua University, China 9.88 8.93 31 -15.7% Decrease
32 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 6.34 8.33 25 22.4% Increase
33 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 14.77 8.09 42 -49.0% Decrease
34 Peking University (PKU), China 5.19 7.76 30 39.3% Increase
35 University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 4.16 7.69 41 72.1% Increase
36 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 5.38 7.51 44 30.0% Increase
37 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 7.46 6.79 34 -15.2% Decrease
38 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 2.80 6.49 29 116.4% Increase
39 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 2.62 6.44 41 129.3% Increase
40 University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA) 3.55 6.28 34 65.0% Increase
41 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 6.92 6.19 37 -16.6% Decrease
42 University of Basel (UB), Switzerland 5.94 5.91 22 -7.2% Decrease
43 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 1.42 5.80 28 279.6% Increase
44 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), United States of America (USA) 5.59 5.59 32 -6.7% Decrease
45 Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), United States of America (USA) 3.98 5.54 18 29.8% Increase
46 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 3.92 5.51 29 31.0% Increase
47 University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK) 3.79 5.30 19 30.3% Increase
48 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 3.65 5.30 25 35.2% Increase
49 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 5.57 5.04 26 -15.8% Decrease
50 Australian National University (ANU), Australia 2.46 5.04 24 91.1% Increase
51 New York University (NYU), United States of America (USA) 11.51 5.02 21 -59.4% Decrease
52 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 3.13 4.96 24 48.0% Increase
53 Purdue University, United States of America (USA) 2.71 4.93 21 69.5% Increase
54 Nagoya University, Japan 2.78 4.67 13 56.9% Increase
55 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 7.21 4.65 25 -39.8% Decrease
56 Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (IIT), Israel 3.28 4.60 14 30.9% Increase
57 University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland 2.06 4.52 21 105.0% Increase
58 University of Freiburg (Uni Freiburg), Germany 0.76 4.50 15 452.6% Increase
59 The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (UK) 5.71 4.07 33 -33.6% Decrease
60 University of Tübingen (Uni Tübingen), Germany 2.21 3.88 19 63.7% Increase
61 University of Southern California (USC), United States of America (USA) 1.05 3.88 18 243.8% Increase
62 Monash University, Australia 1.28 3.77 22 174.1% Increase
63 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 2.55 3.77 29 37.5% Increase
64 Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Netherlands 2.72 3.76 10 29.1% Increase
65 University of Exeter, United Kingdom (UK) 0.63 3.74 22 453.4% Increase
66 University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), United States of America (USA) 4.59 3.68 30 -25.3% Decrease
67 Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea 0.41 3.68 9 728.7% Increase
68 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 2.00 3.61 16 68.1% Increase
69 Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium 0.54 3.60 8 516.0% Increase
70 Fudan University, China 0.46 3.51 24 617.5% Increase
71 University of Virginia (UVA), United States of America (USA) 0.76 3.49 23 327.5% Increase
72 University of California, Irvine (UCI), United States of America (USA) 2.99 3.32 15 3.4% Increase
73 The University of Arizona (Arizona), United States of America (USA) 2.14 3.27 29 42.3% Increase
74 The University of Utah (Utah), United States of America (USA) 5.10 3.25 16 -40.7% Decrease
75 University of Glasgow, United Kingdom (UK) 0.88 3.21 17 241.5% Increase
76 The University of Manchester (UoM), United Kingdom (UK) 7.49 3.13 20 -61.1% Decrease
77 Karolinska Institute (KI), Sweden 3.20 3.13 17 -9.1% Decrease
78 Brown University, United States of America (USA) 2.84 3.04 9 -0.2% Decrease
79 The University of Iowa (UI), United States of America (USA) 0.30 3.04 18 851.7% Increase
80 University of St Andrews, United Kingdom (UK) 1.22 3.01 9 130.9% Increase
81 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 2.38 2.96 30 15.7% Increase
82 Emory University, United States of America (USA) 6.08 2.93 14 -55.2% Decrease
83 Kyoto University, Japan 5.58 2.92 20 -51.3% Decrease
84 The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia 3.52 2.91 24 -23.1% Decrease
85 Leiden University, Netherlands 1.45 2.87 28 84.1% Increase
86 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 2.60 2.85 23 2.4% Increase
87 Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), United States of America (USA) 1.33 2.80 10 96.1% Increase
88 McGill University, Canada 2.57 2.80 14 1.5% Increase
89 University of Bern (UniBE), Switzerland 1.67 2.68 21 49.8% Increase
90 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 5.69 2.67 26 -56.3% Decrease
91 Stockholm University, Sweden 2.94 2.63 23 -16.5% Decrease
92 Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), United States of America (USA) 1.10 2.62 9 122.0% Increase
93 University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany 1.48 2.62 13 64.9% Increase
94 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), United States of America (USA) 0.00 2.61 5 0.0% Increase
95 Uppsala University (UU), Sweden 2.58 2.60 19 -6.2% Decrease
96 University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMass Chan Medical School), United States of America (USA) 1.86 2.58 17 29.5% Increase
97 Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway 1.15 2.43 13 97.4% Increase
98 Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium 1.33 2.42 10 69.1% Increase
99 Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), Austria 0.69 2.41 13 225.4% Increase
100 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS), MSHS, United States of America (USA) 3.78 2.40 22 -40.8% Decrease

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.