2017 Research Leaders: Leading institutions in chemistry

The 2017 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016.

Table criteria

Region/country

Sector

Subject/journals

Position	Institution	Share 2015	Share 2016	Count 2016	Change in Adjusted Share* 2015–2016
1	Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China	901.29	813.86	1674	-4.0%
2	French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France	240.61	231.24	993	2.1%
3	Max Planck Society, Germany	214.13	209.80	487	4.1%
4	Peking University (PKU), China	184.40	180.00	517	3.7%
5	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA)	179.35	165.85	331	-1.7%
6	Nanjing University (NJU), China	158.29	157.77	252	5.9%
7	University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK)	134.96	154.16	266	21.4%
8	University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China	150.16	150.16	291	6.3%
9	Stanford University, United States of America (USA)	146.06	147.04	272	7.0%
10	Kyoto University, Japan	168.02	139.87	255	-11.5%
11	Tsinghua University, China	126.79	138.44	293	16.0%
12	The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan	171.22	134.41	235	-16.6%
13	Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA)	169.88	133.73	252	-16.3%
14	Harvard University, United States of America (USA)	123.68	125.57	254	7.9%
15	Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore	159.29	125.23	227	-16.5%
16	University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA)	139.67	124.31	274	-5.4%
17	University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK)	115.28	119.57	236	10.2%
18	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland	108.55	119.55	218	17.0%
19	The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA)	119.65	118.38	171	5.1%
20	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA)	124.91	117.07	220	-0.4%
21	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland	128.63	115.04	198	-5.0%
22	Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany	116.65	114.54	367	4.3%
23	Nankai University (NKU), China	117.83	111.73	306	0.8%
24	Zhejiang University (ZJU), China	133.57	109.99	169	-12.5%
25	University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA)	89.22	98.57	152	17.4%
26	Xiamen University (XMU), China	94.80	93.55	150	4.9%
27	California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA)	76.92	91.55	143	26.5%
28	Soochow University, China	78.47	89.70	143	21.5%
29	National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore	94.98	88.78	186	-0.7%
30	Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Japan	89.08	88.05	137	5.0%
31	University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA)	100.42	86.95	147	-8.0%
32	University of Toronto (U of T), Canada	83.30	85.34	138	8.9%
33	Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India	87.57	84.70	131	2.8%
34	Osaka University, Japan	110.97	84.40	157	-19.2%
35	University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China	61.43	83.58	434	44.6%
36	Fudan University, China	111.13	82.71	155	-20.9%
37	Leibniz Association, Germany	81.38	80.74	169	5.4%
38	University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA)	94.58	80.47	125	-9.6%
39	Scripps Research, United States of America (USA)	70.24	80.25	122	21.4%
40	University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA)	87.90	78.74	145	-4.8%
41	University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA)	84.64	78.49	123	-1.4%
42	The University of Manchester (UoM), United Kingdom (UK)	82.22	78.40	159	1.3%
43	Sichuan University (SCU), China	75.32	78.24	118	10.4%
44	East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), China	86.30	78.22	134	-3.7%
45	Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States of America (USA)	93.38	77.80	280	-11.5%
46	Wuhan University (WHU), China	74.29	76.60	125	9.6%
47	The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), United States of America (USA)	66.41	71.82	117	14.9%
48	Lanzhou University (LZU), China	69.40	71.01	108	8.7%
49	Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany	82.98	69.50	117	-11.0%
50	Cornell University, United States of America (USA)	62.95	69.24	145	16.9%
51	Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK)	74.81	67.96	146	-3.5%
52	University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA)	92.53	67.88	136	-22.0%
53	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea	77.79	67.16	116	-8.2%
54	Yale University, United States of America (USA)	65.61	66.12	125	7.1%
55	Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain	75.99	66.07	252	-7.6%
56	Hunan University (HNU), China	91.26	65.92	104	-23.2%
57	Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA)	55.61	64.25	130	22.8%
58	Texas A&M University (TAMU), United States of America (USA)	71.30	64.23	99	-4.3%
59	University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA)	82.55	63.98	133	-17.6%
60	Jilin University (JLU), China	75.68	63.58	131	-10.7%
61	Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea	60.07	63.03	102	11.5%
62	University of California, Irvine (UCI), United States of America (USA)	51.55	61.79	91	27.4%
63	Tohoku University, Japan	75.11	60.53	119	-14.4%
64	Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany	59.75	60.32	128	7.3%
65	The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA)	73.66	60.32	114	-13.0%
66	South China University of Technology (SCUT), China	51.37	60.26	106	24.7%
67	Hokkaido University, Japan	65.09	59.93	98	-2.2%
68	Purdue University, United States of America (USA)	57.09	59.66	106	11.0%
69	Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), China	71.25	58.60	109	-12.6%
70	King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia	56.35	58.38	117	10.1%
71	Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Spain	50.14	57.70	121	22.3%
72	East China Normal University (ECNU), China	56.35	56.22	98	6.0%
73	Kyushu University, Japan	51.43	55.95	122	15.6%
74	Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), United States of America (USA)	47.10	55.59	237	25.4%
75	University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA)	67.23	55.33	97	-12.5%
76	Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Russia	43.93	55.27	141	33.7%
77	University of Münster (WWU), Germany	62.67	55.04	88	-6.7%
78	RWTH Aachen University (RWTH Aachen), Germany	54.61	54.43	107	5.9%
79	The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA)	43.25	54.26	143	33.3%
80	Nagoya University, Japan	76.82	53.96	92	-25.4%
81	Monash University, Australia	45.55	53.51	128	24.8%
82	Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), United States of America (USA)	63.18	52.58	126	-11.6%
83	University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK)	50.45	51.77	93	9.0%
84	Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), United States of America (USA)	44.90	51.42	110	21.7%
85	Yonsei University, South Korea	48.28	50.69	95	11.6%
86	RIKEN, Japan	34.13	50.64	142	57.7%
87	Princeton University, United States of America (USA)	54.82	50.55	73	-2.0%
88	Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China	47.55	50.51	117	12.9%
89	Rice University, United States of America (USA)	44.92	49.90	95	18.0%
90	University of Groningen (RUG), Netherlands	47.45	49.21	82	10.2%
91	Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea	55.04	48.33	93	-6.7%
92	Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), United States of America (USA)	56.91	46.21	140	-13.7%
93	Tianjin University (TJU), China	68.56	46.06	258	-28.6%
94	University of Göttingen, Germany	52.06	45.85	90	-6.4%
95	Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU), United States of America (USA)	32.05	45.84	83	52.0%
96	University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), United States of America (USA)	43.56	45.20	79	10.3%
97	Shandong University (SDU), China	44.89	45.16	77	6.9%
98	The University of Warwick (Warwick), United Kingdom (UK)	40.67	43.78	93	14.4%
99	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), China	40.47	42.90	116	12.7%
100	Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium	33.54	42.52	82	34.7%

Each year, the Nature Index publishes tables based on counts of high-quality research outputs in the previous calendar year. Users please note:

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).
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.
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2017 Research Leaders: Leading institutions in chemistry

Table criteria

Footnote