2021 tables: Institutions - biological sciences - academic

The 2021 tables are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.

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# Institution Share 2019 Share 2020 Count 2020 Change in Adjusted Share* 2019–2020
1 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 653.96 680.11 1865 -3.8%
2 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 309.51 326.23 835 -2.5%
3 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 212.68 220.22 753 -4.2%
4 University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), United States of America (USA) 203.47 217.63 654 -1.1%
5 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 199.24 215.30 537 -0.1%
6 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 203.23 200.79 913 -8.6%
7 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 172.82 198.58 538 6.3%
8 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 151.31 195.49 476 19.5%
9 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 182.53 194.35 560 -1.5%
10 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 179.88 190.03 578 -2.3%
11 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 168.84 186.28 688 2.0%
12 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 150.31 172.73 542 6.3%
13 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), United States of America (USA) 155.32 169.11 483 0.7%
14 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 156.87 162.57 466 -4.2%
15 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 155.55 158.67 540 -5.7%
16 Duke University, United States of America (USA) 139.59 142.35 442 -5.7%
17 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 149.61 139.49 505 -13.8%
18 New York University (NYU), United States of America (USA) 127.90 138.59 406 0.2%
19 The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern Medical Center), United States of America (USA) 130.79 137.61 294 -2.7%
20 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 146.79 137.06 396 -13.6%
21 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 151.90 134.29 486 -18.2%
22 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 125.96 126.28 496 -7.3%
23 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 101.82 117.84 294 7.0%
24 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 106.30 105.66 292 -8.1%
25 University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA) 74.63 102.82 293 27.4%
26 University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), United States of America (USA) 85.62 102.16 296 10.4%
27 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), United States of America (USA) 96.36 100.41 355 -3.6%
28 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 73.58 97.51 331 22.6%
29 Vanderbilt University (VU), United States of America (USA) 82.13 96.91 267 9.1%
30 University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 80.54 94.40 377 8.4%
31 Peking University (PKU), China 97.78 93.13 305 -11.9%
32 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 86.29 90.71 221 -2.8%
33 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 87.95 89.12 295 -6.3%
34 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 70.39 88.55 380 16.3%
35 Karolinska Institute (KI), Sweden 74.92 88.44 381 9.2%
36 McGill University, Canada 85.77 86.09 291 -7.2%
37 Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), United States of America (USA) 78.70 84.70 344 -0.5%
38 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 97.56 83.87 217 -20.5%
39 The Rockefeller University, United States of America (USA) 89.13 80.91 233 -16.0%
40 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 82.65 80.35 250 -10.1%
41 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 76.40 78.95 352 -4.4%
42 The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (UK) 80.24 78.86 328 -9.1%
43 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS), MSHS, United States of America (USA) 59.37 78.82 363 22.8%
44 Emory University, United States of America (USA) 63.37 77.04 264 12.4%
45 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 69.19 76.77 226 2.6%
46 The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, United States of America (USA) 71.34 74.64 320 -3.2%
47 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 55.61 74.52 175 23.9%
48 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 59.02 71.89 167 12.7%
49 Tsinghua University, China 71.90 70.88 264 -8.8%
50 The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia 41.37 70.17 287 56.9%
51 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 60.16 69.70 477 7.2%
52 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 73.20 69.08 312 -12.7%
53 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 47.28 68.11 327 33.2%
54 University of California, Irvine (UCI), United States of America (USA) 43.23 65.36 178 39.8%
55 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 55.81 65.04 189 7.8%
56 Fudan University, China 58.18 64.38 232 2.3%
57 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 59.20 63.62 163 -0.6%
58 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU), United States of America (USA) 67.26 63.19 181 -13.1%
59 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 57.17 60.36 265 -2.4%
60 Kyoto University, Japan 47.16 60.32 198 18.3%
61 University of Southern California (USC), United States of America (USA) 72.93 60.12 242 -23.8%
62 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 55.94 59.02 216 -2.4%
63 Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), China 50.68 58.91 186 7.5%
64 Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), Israel 48.48 56.64 147 8.1%
65 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 47.91 55.67 186 7.5%
66 University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland 51.79 55.08 194 -1.6%
67 The University of Utah (Utah), United States of America (USA) 58.05 54.74 171 -12.8%
68 Indiana University (IU), United States of America (USA) 48.51 54.26 188 3.4%
69 Boston University (BU), United States of America (USA) 48.51 53.82 256 2.6%
70 University of Virginia (UVA), United States of America (USA) 42.65 53.56 144 16.1%
71 The University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada 69.64 53.44 219 -29.0%
72 The University of Melbourne (UniMelb), Australia 44.19 52.68 340 10.3%
73 Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands 44.94 52.18 252 7.4%
74 University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK) 41.07 52.17 172 17.5%
75 University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMass Chan Medical School), United States of America (USA) 60.58 50.82 189 -22.4%
76 University of Florida (UF), United States of America (USA) 55.45 50.46 168 -15.8%
77 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 50.67 49.39 153 -9.8%
78 King's College London (KCL), United Kingdom (UK) 42.37 48.08 239 5.0%
79 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 53.63 47.99 136 -17.2%
80 University of Cincinnati (UC), United States of America (USA) 47.36 46.98 127 -8.3%
81 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 32.24 46.93 246 34.6%
82 Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea 39.67 46.41 160 8.2%
83 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 44.75 46.22 148 -4.5%
84 University of Basel (UB), Switzerland 46.92 45.74 191 -9.8%
85 Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), United States of America (USA) 46.27 45.70 158 -8.7%
86 Monash University, Australia 45.61 45.54 229 -7.7%
87 Osaka University, Japan 43.74 44.38 175 -6.2%
88 Texas A&M University (TAMU), United States of America (USA) 33.39 43.34 118 20.0%
89 University of Tübingen (Uni Tübingen), Germany 36.43 42.90 214 8.9%
90 The University of Georgia (UGA), United States of America (USA) 23.07 42.52 116 70.5%
91 University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (CU Anschutz), United States of America (USA) 50.85 41.11 145 -25.2%
92 Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), United States of America (USA) 42.36 40.81 146 -10.9%
93 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 32.85 40.66 117 14.5%
94 University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany 27.69 40.13 132 34.1%
95 University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), United States of America (USA) 27.65 38.94 115 30.3%
96 University of Freiburg (Uni Freiburg), Germany 42.62 38.67 151 -16.1%
97 Uppsala University (UU), Sweden 30.55 38.56 222 16.8%
98 Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College (CAMS & PUMC), China 25.76 38.48 149 38.2%
99 Tel Aviv University (TAU), Israel 45.73 37.93 131 -23.3%
100 University of Rochester (UR), United States of America (USA) 27.91 37.54 108 24.4%

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/.

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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