2019 Research Leaders: Leading 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 Max Planck Society, Germany 36.11 33.15 141 -14.5% Decrease
5 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 16.81 26.38 93 46.2% Increase
6 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 10.97 21.21 71 80.1% Increase
7 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 11.17 19.89 78 66.0% Increase
8 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 13.80 19.86 66 34.2% Increase
9 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 19.55 19.67 65 -6.2% Decrease
10 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 16.47 19.28 87 9.1% Increase
11 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 14.18 19.23 55 26.4% Increase
12 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 15.83 18.97 94 11.7% Increase
13 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 18.76 16.95 65 -15.8% Decrease
14 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 12.96 16.51 59 18.8% Increase
15 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 11.32 16.02 66 31.9% Increase
16 University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), United States of America (USA) 18.08 15.99 58 -17.6% Decrease
17 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 12.07 14.78 73 14.1% Increase
18 National Institutes of Health (NIH), United States of America (USA) 12.28 13.96 52 6.0% Increase
19 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 15.21 13.30 83 -18.5% Decrease
20 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 12.46 12.61 49 -5.7% Decrease
21 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 8.65 12.27 41 32.2% Increase
22 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 12.21 12.06 149 -7.9% Decrease
23 The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern Medical Center), United States of America (USA) 11.78 11.24 21 -11.1% Decrease
24 The Rockefeller University, United States of America (USA) 13.55 11.18 31 -23.1% Decrease
25 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 12.58 10.89 61 -19.3% Decrease
26 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 14.68 10.68 43 -32.2% Decrease
27 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 9.88 10.56 47 -0.4% Decrease
28 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 10.77 10.52 39 -9.0% Decrease
29 University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), United States of America (USA) 3.97 10.24 45 140.7% Increase
30 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), United States of America (USA) 8.85 10.08 37 6.2% Increase
31 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 3.81 9.88 40 141.5% Increase
32 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 12.05 9.78 25 -24.4% Decrease
33 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), United Kingdom (UK) 11.14 9.48 33 -20.7% Decrease
34 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 3.46 9.43 45 154.1% Increase
35 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 7.48 9.19 32 14.5% Increase
36 Duke University, United States of America (USA) 5.76 9.15 32 48.2% Increase
37 Tsinghua University, China 9.88 8.93 31 -15.7% Decrease
38 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 6.34 8.33 25 22.4% Increase
39 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 14.77 8.09 42 -49.0% Decrease
40 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States of America (USA) 6.49 7.95 45 14.3% Increase
41 Peking University (PKU), China 5.19 7.76 30 39.3% Increase
42 University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 4.16 7.69 41 72.1% Increase
43 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 5.38 7.51 44 30.0% Increase
44 RIKEN, Japan 6.71 7.50 28 4.2% Increase
45 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), United States of America (USA) 10.84 7.34 36 -36.9% Decrease
46 Wellcome Sanger Institute, United Kingdom (UK) 4.91 7.30 34 38.4% Increase
47 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 7.46 6.79 34 -15.2% Decrease
48 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 2.80 6.49 29 116.4% Increase
49 Scripps Research, United States of America (USA) 11.62 6.47 15 -48.1% Decrease
50 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 2.62 6.44 41 129.3% Increase
51 Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Spain 3.92 6.37 20 51.3% Increase
52 University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA) 3.55 6.28 34 65.0% Increase
53 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 6.92 6.19 37 -16.6% Decrease
54 European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Germany 3.83 5.98 22 45.6% Increase
55 University of Basel (UB), Switzerland 5.94 5.91 22 -7.2% Decrease
56 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 1.42 5.80 28 279.6% Increase
57 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), United States of America (USA) 5.59 5.59 32 -6.7% Decrease
58 Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), United States of America (USA) 3.98 5.54 18 29.8% Increase
59 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 3.92 5.51 29 31.0% Increase
60 University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK) 3.79 5.30 19 30.3% Increase
61 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 3.65 5.30 25 35.2% Increase
62 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 5.57 5.04 26 -15.8% Decrease
63 Australian National University (ANU), Australia 2.46 5.04 24 91.1% Increase
64 New York University (NYU), United States of America (USA) 11.51 5.02 21 -59.4% Decrease
65 F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Switzerland 2.24 5.01 13 109.0% Increase
66 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 3.13 4.96 24 48.0% Increase
67 Purdue University, United States of America (USA) 2.71 4.93 21 69.5% Increase
68 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States of America (USA) 5.29 4.88 20 -14.1% Decrease
69 Alphabet Inc., United States of America (USA) 2.20 4.88 9 106.4% Increase
70 Nagoya University, Japan 2.78 4.67 13 56.9% Increase
71 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 7.21 4.65 25 -39.8% Decrease
72 Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (IIT), Israel 3.28 4.60 14 30.9% Increase
73 University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland 2.06 4.52 21 105.0% Increase
74 University of Freiburg (Uni Freiburg), Germany 0.76 4.50 15 452.6% Increase
75 Merck & Co., Inc., United States of America (USA) 3.67 4.43 8 12.6% Increase
76 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States of America (USA) 1.79 4.26 18 121.5% Increase
77 National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan 1.27 4.24 19 211.7% Increase
78 IBM, United States of America (USA) 3.02 4.16 10 28.5% Increase
79 Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), United States of America (USA) 5.63 4.14 21 -31.5% Decrease
80 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States of America (USA) 6.64 4.11 37 -42.3% Decrease
81 The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (UK) 5.71 4.07 33 -33.6% Decrease
82 Leibniz Association, Germany 4.15 3.92 43 -11.9% Decrease
83 Smithsonian Institution, United States of America (USA) 2.11 3.89 22 72.2% Increase
84 University of Tübingen (Uni Tübingen), Germany 2.21 3.88 19 63.7% Increase
85 University of Southern California (USC), United States of America (USA) 1.05 3.88 18 243.8% Increase
86 Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), United States of America (USA) 3.87 3.80 28 -8.5% Decrease
87 Monash University, Australia 1.28 3.77 22 174.1% Increase
88 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 2.55 3.77 29 37.5% Increase
89 Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Netherlands 2.72 3.76 10 29.1% Increase
90 Salk Institute for Biological Studies (Salk), United States of America (USA) 4.09 3.76 15 -14.5% Decrease
91 University of Exeter, United Kingdom (UK) 0.63 3.74 22 453.4% Increase
92 University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), United States of America (USA) 4.59 3.68 30 -25.3% Decrease
93 Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea 0.41 3.68 9 728.7% Increase
94 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 2.00 3.61 16 68.1% Increase
95 Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium 0.54 3.60 8 516.0% Increase
96 Institute for Basic Science (IBS), South Korea 0.17 3.57 10 1,870.6% Increase
97 Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore 2.38 3.55 12 39.4% Increase
98 Fudan University, China 0.46 3.51 24 617.5% Increase
99 University of Virginia (UVA), United States of America (USA) 0.76 3.49 23 327.5% Increase
100 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (St. Jude), United States of America (USA) 3.49 3.38 13 -9.8% 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.