2020 tables: Institutions - biological sciences

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

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# Institution Share 2018 Share 2019 Count 2019 Change in Adjusted Share* 2018–2019
1 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 622.36 653.96 1770 4.5%
2 National Institutes of Health (NIH), United States of America (USA) 352.79 357.11 893 0.7%
3 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 302.33 309.51 787 1.8%
4 Max Planck Society, Germany 292.94 291.42 1071 -1.1%
5 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 253.27 244.80 856 -3.9%
6 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 172.49 212.68 664 22.6%
7 University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), United States of America (USA) 200.77 203.47 595 0.8%
8 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 212.82 203.23 866 -5.0%
9 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 193.90 199.24 454 2.2%
10 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 171.91 184.27 1354 6.6%
11 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 172.58 182.53 578 5.2%
12 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 186.54 179.88 554 -4.1%
13 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 149.98 172.82 510 14.6%
14 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 194.73 168.84 593 -13.8%
15 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 153.59 156.87 464 1.6%
16 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 158.67 155.55 508 -2.5%
17 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), United States of America (USA) 159.38 155.32 441 -3.1%
18 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 139.67 151.90 483 8.2%
19 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 153.99 151.31 392 -2.3%
20 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 183.11 150.31 476 -18.4%
21 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 153.41 149.61 475 -3.0%
22 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 150.57 146.79 380 -3.0%
23 Duke University, United States of America (USA) 136.01 139.59 440 2.1%
24 The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern Medical Center), United States of America (USA) 115.54 130.79 293 12.6%
25 New York University (NYU), United States of America (USA) 120.63 127.90 376 5.5%
26 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 121.10 125.96 462 3.5%
27 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 88.05 106.30 295 20.1%
28 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 110.28 102.49 685 -7.6%
29 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 117.47 101.82 267 -13.8%
30 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), United States of America (USA) 92.75 100.45 321 7.7%
31 Peking University (PKU), China 84.64 97.78 299 14.9%
32 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 87.95 97.56 234 10.3%
33 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), United States of America (USA) 99.07 96.36 318 -3.3%
34 The Rockefeller University, United States of America (USA) 82.88 89.13 236 7.0%
35 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 87.31 87.95 306 0.2%
36 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 87.21 86.29 191 -1.6%
37 McGill University, Canada 76.26 85.77 293 11.9%
38 University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), United States of America (USA) 81.52 85.62 275 4.5%
39 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 81.08 82.65 249 1.4%
40 Vanderbilt University (VU), United States of America (USA) 76.06 82.13 227 7.4%
41 University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 80.69 80.54 352 -0.7%
42 The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (UK) 77.71 80.24 307 2.7%
43 National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM), France 80.53 79.34 848 -2.0%
44 Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), United States of America (USA) 91.57 78.70 304 -14.5%
45 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 78.23 76.40 307 -2.9%
46 Karolinska Institute (KI), Sweden 70.21 74.92 373 6.1%
47 University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA) 85.84 74.63 233 -13.5%
48 Scripps Research, United States of America (USA) 86.98 73.81 202 -15.6%
49 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 95.32 73.58 259 -23.2%
50 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 61.95 73.20 299 17.5%
51 University of Southern California (USC), United States of America (USA) 65.80 72.93 239 10.2%
52 Tsinghua University, China 68.86 71.90 238 3.8%
53 The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, United States of America (USA) 91.76 71.34 263 -22.7%
54 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 84.39 70.39 318 -17.0%
55 The University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada 54.05 69.64 227 28.2%
56 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 55.94 69.19 212 23.0%
57 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU), United States of America (USA) 52.42 67.26 181 27.6%
58 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 53.25 63.79 369 19.2%
59 Emory University, United States of America (USA) 70.94 63.37 242 -11.1%
60 University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMass Chan Medical School), United States of America (USA) 73.04 60.58 196 -17.5%
61 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 51.72 60.16 401 15.7%
62 Mount Sinai Health System (MSHS), United States of America (USA) 76.42 59.39 289 -22.7%
63 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 61.17 59.20 139 -3.7%
64 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 73.80 59.02 140 -20.5%
65 Fudan University, China 56.43 58.18 231 2.6%
66 The University of Utah (Utah), United States of America (USA) 47.36 58.05 173 21.9%
67 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), United Kingdom (UK) 52.27 57.61 270 9.6%
68 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 49.72 57.17 233 14.4%
69 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 54.25 55.94 216 2.6%
70 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 58.03 55.81 164 -4.3%
71 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 72.55 55.61 150 -23.8%
72 University of Florida (UF), United States of America (USA) 42.57 55.45 192 29.5%
73 Leibniz Association, Germany 54.26 54.29 320 -0.5%
74 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 54.74 53.63 145 -2.6%
75 University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland 47.47 51.79 168 8.5%
76 University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (CU Anschutz), United States of America (USA) 62.14 50.85 166 -18.6%
77 Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), China 53.73 50.68 140 -6.2%
78 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 43.54 50.67 154 15.7%
79 Indiana University (IU), United States of America (USA) 53.00 48.51 153 -9.0%
80 Boston University (BU), United States of America (USA) 38.90 48.51 236 24.0%
81 The Francis Crick Institute, United Kingdom (UK) 52.18 48.51 138 -7.5%
82 Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), Israel 42.08 48.48 131 14.6%
83 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 59.31 47.91 159 -19.7%
84 Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium 43.43 47.89 165 9.7%
85 University of Cincinnati (UC), United States of America (USA) 44.73 47.36 148 5.3%
86 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 49.74 47.28 240 -5.4%
87 Kyoto University, Japan 66.52 47.16 174 -29.5%
88 University of Basel (UB), Switzerland 40.22 46.92 197 16.1%
89 Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), United States of America (USA) 53.53 46.27 135 -14.0%
90 People's Liberation Army (PLA), China 37.48 45.78 194 21.5%
91 Tel Aviv University (TAU), Israel 27.26 45.73 132 66.8%
92 Monash University, Australia 45.63 45.61 218 -0.6%
93 Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands 45.16 44.94 246 -1.0%
94 HHMI Janelia Research Campus, United States of America (USA) 36.57 44.90 101 22.1%
95 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 44.77 44.75 127 -0.6%
96 The University of Melbourne (UniMelb), Australia 50.81 44.19 284 -13.5%
97 Osaka University, Japan 47.58 43.74 158 -8.5%
98 European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Germany 47.77 43.62 266 -9.2%
99 University of California, Irvine (UCI), United States of America (USA) 43.52 43.23 153 -1.2%
100 University of Virginia (UVA), United States of America (USA) 40.63 42.65 125 4.4%

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.


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