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The Nature Index is a database that tracks institutions and countries/territories and their scientific output since its introduction in November, 2014.^[1] Originally released with 64 natural-science journals, the Nature Index expanded to 82 natural-science journals in 2018, then added 64 health-science journals in 2023. Each year, Nature Index ranks the leading institutions (which can be companies, universities, government agencies, research institutes, or NGOs) and countries by the number of scientific articles and papers published in leading journals. This ranking can also be categorized by individual fields of research such as life sciences, chemistry, physics, or earth sciences, with different institutions leading in each. The Nature Index was conceived by Nature Portfolio. In total, more than 17,000 institutions are listed in the Nature Index.

Methodology

The Nature Index attempts to objectively measure the scientific output of institutions and countries, taking into account differences in quality. Therefore, only articles published in 145 selected high-quality journals are counted. These journals were selected by independent committees. If authors from several institutions and/or countries are involved in a scientific article, it is divided accordingly, assuming that all researchers were equally involved in the article. For example, this "fractional count" (Share) received by each author would be 0.1 for an article with 10 authors. If an author is affiliated with more than one institution, that author's Share is then subdivided equally across their affiliated institutions. The process is similar for countries/territories and regions, though the fact that some institutions have overseas labs makes the process more complicated, with such labs being counted towards their appropriate host countries.^[2]^[3]

Top institutions

The top 25 institutions with the highest share of articles published in scientific journals according to the Nature Index 2023, which is valid for the calendar year 2022:^[4]

Rank	Institution	Country	Total share
1	Chinese Academy of Sciences	China	2.065%
2	Harvard University	United States	1.162%
3	Max Planck Society	Germany	0.686%
4	French National Centre for Scientific Research	France	0.622%
5	University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences	China	0.590%
6	Stanford University	United States	0.587%
7	University of Science and Technology of China	China	0.567%
8	Nanjing University	China	0.562%
9	Peking University	China	0.557%
10	Tsinghua University	China	0.524%
11	Helmholtz Association	Germany	0.512%
12	Zhejiang University	China	0.476%
13	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States	0.473%
14	National Institutes of Health	United States	0.442%
15	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China	0.435%
16	Sun Yat-sen University	China	0.435%
17	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom	0.428%
18	Fudan University	China	0.426%
19	University of Oxford	United Kingdom	0.420%
20	University of Tokyo	Japan	0.394%
21	Yale University	United States	0.381%
22	University of Pennsylvania	United States	0.372%
23	University of Michigan	United States	0.366%
24	University of Toronto	Canada	0.361%
25	ETH Zurich	Switzerland	0.352%

Top countries

The top 25 countries with the highest share of articles published in scientific journals according to the Nature Index 2023, which is valid for the calendar year 2022.^[5]

Rank	Country	Total share
1	United States	21.473%
2	China	20.051%
3	Germany	4.555%
4	United Kingdom	3.967%
5	Japan	2.960%
6	France	2.316%
7	Canada	1.791%
8	South Korea	1.635%
9	Switzerland	1.421%
10	Australia	1.373%
11	India	1.280%
12	Italy	1.267%
13	Spain	1.219%
14	Netherlands	1.116%
15	Sweden	0.800%
16	Israel	0.661%
17	Denmark	0.575%
18	Singapore	0.551%
19	Taiwan	0.453%
20	Russia	0.448%
21	Belgium	0.446%
22	Austria	0.425%
23	Brazil	0.328%
24	Poland	0.297%
25	Finland	0.269%