2022 Leading institutions - fields of research*

The 2022 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021.

Table criteria

Position Institution Location Share Count
1 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) China 149.38 417
2 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) China 38.93 81
3 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) France 38.20 191
4 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) China 34.95 150
5 Nankai University (NKU) China 31.46 52
6 Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Russia 26.84 50
7 Xiamen University (XMU) China 26.48 46
8 Max Planck Society Germany 24.09 63
9 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres Germany 23.57 74
10 Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) China 23.29 53
11 Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) China 22.40 37
12 Jilin University (JLU) China 22.12 33
13 Nanjing University (NJU) China 20.81 47
14 Tsinghua University China 20.78 55
15 Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS) China 20.76 49
16 Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) China 20.34 40
17 Northwestern University (NU) United States of America (USA) 20.25 41
18 The University of Manchester (UoM) United Kingdom (UK) 20.22 40
19 Kyoto University Japan 19.85 45
20 Peking University (PKU) China 19.22 75
21 Yangzhou University (YZU) China 18.79 27
22 Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore 18.21 34
23 Zhengzhou University (ZZU) China 17.90 42
24 Soochow University China 17.55 30
25 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) United States of America (USA) 17.23 39
26 Dalian University of Technology (DUT) China 16.69 33
27 Shandong University (SDU) China 16.48 37
28 Zhejiang University (ZJU) China 16.41 37
29 Osaka University Japan 16.38 30
30 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) United States of America (USA) 16.24 27
31 Sichuan University (SCU) China 15.59 28
32 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg) Germany 15.31 21
33 Fuzhou University (FZU) China 15.26 42
34 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) Switzerland 15.25 23
35 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo) Japan 15.15 31
36 Texas A&M University (TAMU) United States of America (USA) 14.35 25
37 City University of Hong Kong (CityU) China 14.02 32
38 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) South Korea 13.99 28
39 Henan University (HENU) China 13.72 20
40 University of Münster (WWU) Germany 13.37 22
41 University of Würzburg (JMU) Germany 13.11 20
42 South China University of Technology (SCUT) China 13.03 24
43 Fudan University China 12.95 27
44 University of Oxford United Kingdom (UK) 12.72 31
45 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) China 12.52 30
46 Technical University of Munich (TUM) Germany 12.44 21
47 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) United States of America (USA) 11.88 42
48 University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) Germany 11.87 23
49 Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) India 11.59 19
50 The Ohio State University (OSU) United States of America (USA) 11.54 15

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, 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 research leaders.

* Field of research (FOR) tables represent an editorial selection, chosen from the four natural-sciences subject areas tracked by the Nature Index (biological sciences, physical sciences, chemistry and Earth and environmental sciences).