Nature Index in 2015

The ambition driving China's astonishing progress in the output of high-quality science is particularly strong in some cities, whose growth far outstrips expectation.

Amid fierce international competitiveness, governments at all levels are responding by orchestrating collaborations between industry and academic institutions.

A description of the terminology and methodology used in this supplement, and a guide to the functionality available free online at natureindex.com.

The benefits of economics and history converge with the demands of population growth and sustainability issues in China's most productive research and technology centres.

The diverse histories of China's cities strongly influence their collaboration patterns.

China's economic boom is mirrored by its similarly meteoric rise in high-quality science.

China's leading institutions for high-quality science, ordered by weighted fractional count (WFC) for 2014. Also shown are the total number of articles, and the change in WFC from 2013. Articles are from the 68 journals that comprise the Nature Index (see 'How to use the index', S190).

Shown here are all the countries in the Nature Index that collaborate internationally. They are sized by weighted collaboration score, which is the sum of the weighted fractional counts for each partnership the country has. The top 20 inter-regional collaborations are highlighted, with the thickness of the arrows scaled to show relative strength. Intra-regional partnerships are also coloured. Analysis by Larissa Kogleck 
Visualization by Small Multiples

Though industry collaboration with academia often happens between neighbours, communication and shared goals outweigh proximity in driving success.

Collaboration may result in higher impact science, but are government initiatives the best way to promote such international and interdisciplinary connections?

How high-quality research collaborations are helping countries improve their nascent science infrastructure in different ways.

Links formed by mainland China's large scientific diaspora and its increasing output of high-quality research make it an emerging centre of international collaboration.

The small but focused snapshot of research afforded by the Nature Index helps fine-tune analysis of global scientific collaboration, say Jonathan Adams and Tamar Loach.

A description of the terminology and methodology used in this supplement, and a guide to the functionality available free online at natureindex.com.

Tables are calculated based on collaboration score, which is the sum of the fractional count (FC) for collaborative papers involving the named country and each of its partner countries.

Three regions — North America, North & West Europe, and East & Southeast Asia — produced 91% of the overall 2014 output (WFC) in the Nature Index.