2016 Research Leaders: Leading institutions in Earth & environmental sciences

The 2016 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015.

Table criteria

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Position Institution Share 2015 Count 2015
1 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 165.80 417
2 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 140.63 375
3 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States of America (USA) 95.55 396
4 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 94.41 678
5 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 86.99 222
6 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), United States of America (USA) 76.68 189
7 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 74.17 255
8 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 72.59 231
9 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 67.95 167
10 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 66.53 232
11 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States of America (USA) 63.96 238
12 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 62.27 188
13 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 50.62 146
14 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 48.50 143
15 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 45.40 110
16 Peking University (PKU), China 44.32 155
17 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 44.13 112
18 The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia 43.15 106
19 Nanjing University (NJU), China 41.85 124
20 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 41.10 136
21 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 40.61 108
22 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 40.41 151
23 University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), United States of America (USA) 37.82 148
24 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), United States of America (USA) 36.87 109
25 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 36.69 109
26 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 36.60 112
27 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 36.12 85
28 Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), United States of America (USA) 35.10 87
29 National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), Italy 33.32 71
30 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 33.06 98
31 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), United States of America (USA) 33.04 82
32 University of Leeds, United Kingdom (UK) 32.81 111
33 Arizona State University (ASU), United States of America (USA) 31.92 80
34 Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands 31.65 95
35 The University of Arizona (Arizona), United States of America (USA) 31.35 97
36 Leibniz Association, Germany 31.33 101
37 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 31.29 122
38 University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Australia 30.96 87
39 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 30.53 80
40 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 30.37 97
41 National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), United States of America (USA) 29.49 88
42 University of Alberta (U of A), Canada 29.43 68
43 University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK) 29.39 99
44 Max Planck Society, Germany 29.21 116
45 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 29.03 104
46 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 28.69 95
47 Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Canada 28.34 78
48 University of Hawai'i at Manoa (UH Mānoa), United States of America (USA) 28.02 90
49 Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG), Switzerland 27.85 78
50 The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia 27.51 101
51 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 27.34 98
52 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), United States of America (USA) 26.78 60
53 Tsinghua University, China 26.60 98
54 University of Florida (UF), United States of America (USA) 26.29 76
55 Oregon State University, United States of America (USA) 25.78 81
56 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 25.61 65
57 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 24.85 103
58 Australian National University (ANU), Australia 24.69 84
59 Tongji University, China 24.46 76
60 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), United States of America (USA) 23.93 61
61 Beijing Normal University (BNU), China 23.65 100
62 Brown University, United States of America (USA) 23.15 55
63 University of California, Riverside (UCR), United States of America (USA) 23.13 47
64 Tohoku University, Japan 23.11 60
65 Texas A&M University (TAMU), United States of America (USA) 23.01 73
66 University of California, Irvine (UCI), United States of America (USA) 22.12 62
67 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States of America (USA) 22.00 72
68 Purdue University, United States of America (USA) 21.76 59
69 University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA) 21.74 69
70 Stockholm University, Sweden 21.71 67
71 Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark 21.69 52
72 The University of Iowa (UI), United States of America (USA) 21.62 76
73 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 21.57 59
74 McGill University, Canada 21.52 66
75 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 21.44 86
76 Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), United States of America (USA) 21.37 40
77 University of Exeter, United Kingdom (UK) 20.56 73
78 The University of Utah (Utah), United States of America (USA) 20.54 52
79 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 20.45 69
80 Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Japan 20.25 74
81 Institute of Research for Development (IRD), France 19.59 257
82 Colorado State University, United States of America (USA) 19.46 65
83 Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), United States of America (USA) 19.46 70
84 Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore 19.33 50
85 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 19.29 77
86 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 19.13 76
87 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), United States of America (USA) 19.04 46
88 Rice University, United States of America (USA) 19.03 48
89 The University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada 18.93 64
90 Monash University, Australia 18.64 64
91 Duke University, United States of America (USA) 18.52 57
92 State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY Stony Brook), United States of America (USA) 18.40 50
93 University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), United States of America (USA) 18.28 58
94 University of Bern (UniBE), Switzerland 17.79 68
95 Hokkaido University, Japan 17.71 43
96 Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), United States of America (USA) 17.47 67
97 University of Southern California (USC), United States of America (USA) 17.40 47
98 U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), United States of America (USA) 17.34 61
99 China Meteorological Administration (CMA), China 17.30 55
100 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 17.19 30

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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