Nature Index

Nature Index

Discipline	Multidisciplinary
Language	English
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History	Since 2014 [update]
Publisher	Springer Nature
License	CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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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 cate

gorized 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 2025, which is valid for the calendar year 2024: ^[4]

Rank	Institution	Country	Total share	Count
1	Chinese Academy of Sciences	China	2776.9	9445
2	Harvard University	United States	1155.19	3915
3	University of Science and Technology of China	China	850.6	2609
4	Zhejiang University	China	819.57	2118
5	Peking University	China	812.32	3080
6	University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences	China	793.59	3925
7	Tsinghua University	China	769.57	2526
8	Nanjing University	China	755.2	1864
9	Max Planck Society	Germany	752.22	2847
10	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China	713.24	1936
11	Sun Yat-sen University	China	660.59	1646
12	Fudan University	China	659.69	1766
13	French National Centre for Scientific Research	France	640.95	4658
14	Helmholtz Association	Germany	586.49	2954
15	Sichuan University	China	543.72	1053
16	Stanford University	United States	541.85	1998
17	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States	504.31	2111
18	University of Oxford	United Kingdom	442.63	1801
19	Jilin University	China	436.89	850
20	Nankai University	China	430.59	1045
21	Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST)	China	429.07	934
22	Shandong University	China	424.36	1158
23	University of Tokyo	Japan	424.18	1291
24	National Institutes of Health	United States	419.89	1198
25	University of Michigan	United States	417.68	1472

Top countries

Main article: List of countries by number of scientific and technical journal articles

The table here shows the countries with the highest share of articles published in scientific journals according to the Nature Index 2025, which contains data for the calendar year 2024. ^[5]

Rank	Country or territory	Count	Share	Population	Count per ten million people	Share per ten million people
1	China	37273	32121.81	1,409,670,000	264	227.87
2	United States	31930	22082.59	335,893,238	951	657.43
3	Germany	10559	5000.90	84,607,016	1248	591.07
4	United Kingdom	9528	3942.01	67,596,281	1410	583.17
5	Japan	5555	3185.39	124,000,000	448	256.89
6	France	5955	2421.39	68,394,000	871	354.04
7	South Korea	3431	2017.95	51,293,934	669	393.41
8	Canada	4566	1854.49	40,769,890	1120	454.87
9	India	2733	1783.34	1,400,744,000	20	12.73
10	Switzerland	3967	1522.50	8,960,817	4427	1699.06
11	Australia	3979	1472.49	26,821,557	1483	548.88
12	Italy	4050	1435.86	58,972,268	687	243.55
13	Spain	3870	1396.60	48,592,909	797	287.50
14	Netherlands	3372	1205.94	17,967,505	1876	670.88
15	Sweden	2612	841.36	10,549,287	2476	797.40
16	Singapore	1799	690.01	5,917,600	3041	1166.59
17	Israel	1467	648.01	9,880,000	1485	656.68
18	Denmark	1887	634.20	5,961,249	3165	1063.35
19	Belgium	1677	529.17	11,820,117	1419	447.87
20	Taiwan	1255	527.41	23,420,442	536	225.18
21	Austria	1547	464.11	9,159,993	1690	506.74
22	Russia	920	400.82	146,150,789	63	27.42
23	Brazil	1198	370.69	203,080,756	59	18.26
24	Poland	1270	335.56	37,620,000	337	89.22
25	Finland	1030	307.76	5,574,011	185	552.18
26	Czech Republic	980	275.40	10,900,555	899	252.67
27	Norway	931	246.06	5,550,203	1678	443.20
28	Saudi Arabia	596	176.65	32,175,224	185	54.90
29	Portugal	737	169.70	10,467,366	704	162.26
30	Iran	353	136.45	84,055,000	42	16.23
31	Ireland	644	133.37	5,281,600	1220	252.46
32	Chile	619	131.13	19,960,889	310	65.68
33	New Zealand	500	130.64	5,305,600	943	246.28
34	South Africa	590	118.04	62,027,503	95	19.02
35	Turkey	588	114.38	85,372,377	69	13.40
36	Hungary	451	107.21	9,584,000	471	111.87
37	Greece	566	106.76	10,413,982	543	102.49
38	Mexico	445	103.53	129,625,968	34	7.99
39	Argentina	439	101.51	46,654,581	94	21.75
40	Thailand	406	79.10	66,090,475	61	11.96
41	Slovenia	249	48.31	2,123,103	1173	227.55
42	United Arab Emirates	262	43.82	9,282,410	282	47.20
43	Iceland	149	41.84	383,726	3882	1089.77
44	Pakistan	277	40.90	241,499,431	11	1.69
45	Vietnam	138	36.82	100,300,000	14	3.67
46	Ukraine	258	32.39	36,700,000	70	8.83
47	Estonia	204	32.36	1,366,491	1493	236.84
48	Romania	343	32.11	19,051,562	180	16.85
49	Croatia	207	30.81	3,855,641	537	79.94
50	Luxembourg	100	28.61	672,020	1488	425.73

See also

• List of cities by scientific output
• List of countries by number of scientific and technical journal articles
• List of sovereign states by research and development spending

References

1. "Nature Index tables". Nature. 515 (7526): S98 –S108. 2014. Bibcode:2014Natur.515S..98.. doi: 10.1038/515S98a . ISSN   1476-4687. PMID   25390156. S2CID   205083319 .
2. "FAQ". Nature Index. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
3. "A guide to the Nature Index". Nature. 569 (7756): S31. 2019-05-15. Bibcode: 2019Natur.569S..31. . doi: 10.1038/d41586-019-01443-9 .
4. "2025 Research Leaders: Leading institutions | Nature Index". www.nature.com. Retrieved 2025-06-13.
5. "2025 Research Leaders: Leading countries/territories". Nature Index. Springer Nature. Retrieved 9 October 2025.