2020 Research Leaders: Leading academic institutions in Nature & Science

The 2020 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019.

Table criteria

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Position Institution Share 2018 Share 2019 Count 2019 Change in Adjusted Share* 2018–2019
1 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 71.87 80.19 233 12.1% Increase
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 38.62 42.19 157 9.7% Increase
3 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 40.22 41.47 116 3.6% Increase
4 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 26.38 24.83 96 -5.5% Decrease
5 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 14.78 21.30 85 44.8% Increase
6 University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), United States of America (USA) 15.99 20.91 70 31.4% Increase
7 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 19.23 20.77 65 8.5% Increase
8 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 16.95 19.39 63 14.9% Increase
9 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 16.51 17.37 52 5.7% Increase
10 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 19.67 17.30 66 -11.7% Decrease
11 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 19.86 16.34 53 -17.4% Decrease
12 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 8.09 16.25 55 101.8% Increase
13 Tsinghua University, China 8.93 15.36 51 72.7% Increase
14 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 19.28 15.32 77 -20.2% Decrease
15 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 10.68 15.00 48 41.0% Increase
16 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 19.89 14.18 80 -28.4% Decrease
17 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 10.52 13.21 61 26.1% Increase
18 The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern Medical Center), United States of America (USA) 11.24 12.94 23 15.7% Increase
19 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 12.61 12.79 50 1.9% Increase
20 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 16.02 12.72 70 -20.3% Decrease
21 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 10.89 11.89 60 9.6% Increase
22 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 12.27 11.73 48 -3.9% Decrease
23 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 21.21 11.59 50 -45.1% Decrease
24 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 10.56 10.58 37 0.7% Increase
25 Peking University (PKU), China 7.76 8.83 34 14.2% Increase
26 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 9.43 8.59 45 -8.5% Decrease
27 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 8.33 8.45 28 2.0% Increase
28 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 9.78 8.34 23 -14.3% Decrease
29 New York University (NYU), United States of America (USA) 5.02 8.33 28 66.7% Increase
30 University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), United States of America (USA) 10.24 7.47 41 -26.8% Decrease
31 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 2.09 7.37 22 253.3% Increase
32 The Rockefeller University, United States of America (USA) 11.18 7.22 24 -35.1% Decrease
33 University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 7.69 7.22 48 -5.7% Decrease
34 University of Basel (UB), Switzerland 5.91 6.97 28 18.4% Increase
35 Duke University, United States of America (USA) 9.15 6.85 41 -24.9% Decrease
36 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 7.51 6.84 36 -8.5% Decrease
37 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), United States of America (USA) 10.08 6.64 36 -33.9% Decrease
38 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 6.49 6.39 35 -1.1% Decrease
39 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 4.96 5.98 13 20.9% Increase
40 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), United States of America (USA) 5.59 5.85 28 5.1% Increase
41 McGill University, Canada 2.80 5.77 37 106.6% Increase
42 Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria), Austria 1.17 5.54 11 376.3% Increase
43 The University of Utah (Utah), United States of America (USA) 3.25 5.47 19 69.3% Increase
44 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 3.61 5.46 25 51.7% Increase
45 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 9.19 5.43 22 -40.6% Decrease
46 The University of Manchester (UoM), United Kingdom (UK) 3.13 5.43 27 74.3% Increase
47 Rice University, United States of America (USA) 1.93 5.37 18 179.2% Increase
48 University of California, Irvine (UCI), United States of America (USA) 3.32 5.31 21 60.7% Increase
49 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 6.19 5.18 42 -16.0% Decrease
50 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 2.96 5.04 46 70.9% Increase
51 Kyoto University, Japan 2.92 4.94 22 70.3% Increase
52 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 6.79 4.94 26 -26.9% Decrease
53 Fudan University, China 3.51 4.82 25 37.8% Increase
54 Karolinska Institute (KI), Sweden 3.13 4.67 22 50.2% Increase
55 The University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada 1.90 4.66 26 146.7% Increase
56 Purdue University, United States of America (USA) 4.93 4.57 16 -6.9% Decrease
57 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 4.65 4.28 31 -7.6% Decrease
58 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 5.80 4.07 31 -29.5% Decrease
59 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 6.44 3.91 36 -39.1% Decrease
60 University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany 2.62 3.89 13 49.1% Increase
61 University of Göttingen, Germany 1.82 3.68 17 103.1% Increase
62 University of Freiburg (Uni Freiburg), Germany 4.50 3.57 20 -20.2% Decrease
63 University of Glasgow, United Kingdom (UK) 3.21 3.51 14 9.8% Increase
64 Nanjing University (NJU), China 0.42 3.49 20 742.7% Increase
65 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 2.67 3.44 30 29.3% Increase
66 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 1.99 3.37 23 70.0% Increase
67 Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium 2.42 3.28 13 36.4% Increase
68 Monash University, Australia 3.77 3.22 24 -14.2% Decrease
69 The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia 2.91 3.20 21 10.4% Increase
70 Boston University (BU), United States of America (USA) 1.75 3.05 29 75.6% Increase
71 University of Cologne (UoC), Germany 1.22 3.05 20 151.0% Increase
72 University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA) 6.28 3.03 22 -51.6% Decrease
73 Vanderbilt University (VU), United States of America (USA) 1.89 2.99 17 59.0% Increase
74 Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin), Germany 0.72 2.94 36 308.6% Increase
75 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 2.85 2.93 20 3.3% Increase
76 RWTH Aachen University (RWTH Aachen), Germany 0.79 2.84 12 259.6% Increase
77 University of Regensburg (UR), Germany 1.60 2.84 7 78.6% Increase
78 Leiden University, Netherlands 2.87 2.83 23 -1.0% Decrease
79 Indiana University (IU), United States of America (USA) 1.08 2.79 17 160.1% Increase
80 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU), United States of America (USA) 2.03 2.77 23 37.3% Increase
81 Hokkaido University, Japan 0.06 2.71 10 4,339.8% Increase
82 University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMass Chan Medical School), United States of America (USA) 2.58 2.71 21 5.3% Increase
83 University of Liverpool, United Kingdom (UK) 0.68 2.70 13 296.1% Increase
84 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 9.88 2.69 34 -72.6% Decrease
85 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS), MSHS, United States of America (USA) 2.40 2.63 26 10.0% Increase
86 The University of Melbourne (UniMelb), Australia 2.34 2.63 21 12.8% Increase
87 Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), United States of America (USA) 1.77 2.61 10 47.8% Increase
88 University of Bonn (Uni Bonn), Germany 1.21 2.51 21 107.7% Increase
89 University of Leeds, United Kingdom (UK) 0.51 2.47 14 385.6% Increase
90 University of Cincinnati (UC), United States of America (USA) 0.51 2.46 9 384.4% Increase
91 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 5.04 2.45 22 -51.2% Decrease
92 Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands 1.73 2.43 25 40.5% Increase
93 University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK) 5.30 2.39 20 -54.7% Decrease
94 University of Helsinki, Finland 0.44 2.39 20 450.0% Increase
95 Uppsala University (UU), Sweden 2.60 2.38 20 -8.2% Decrease
96 University of Paris-Saclay, France 2.15 2.38 31 11.1% Increase
97 University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Australia 1.07 2.37 11 122.5% Increase
98 Keio University, Japan 0.41 2.36 9 477.8% Increase
99 University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany 0.16 2.36 12 1,349.4% Increase
100 The University of Warwick (Warwick), United Kingdom (UK) 1.19 2.32 12 95.5% Increase

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.


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