Smithsonian Institution

United States of America (USA)

Time frame: 1 June 2025 - 30 May 2026

Profile

The Nature Index tracks primary research articles from 178 applied, health, natural and social sciences journals, across many different publishers, chosen by an independent group of researchers. The Nature Index provides absolute Count of primary research articles and fractional Share counts of author contribution to articles. The positions in the table below reflect Smithsonian Institution's position overall, domestically, within their sector, and in various subject areas based on their Share. Each position links to the corresponding table where Smithsonian Institution is listed.

Position by research output Share

Global United States of America (USA)
Overall 670 149
Government 63 17

Position by research output Share in subject areas

Global United States of America (USA)
Applied sciences 1286 189
Health sciences 2779 632
Natural sciences 471 102
Biological sciences 313 90
Chemistry 1948 300
Earth & environmental sciences 322 81
Physical sciences 283 66
Social sciences 745 176

Research

Smithsonian Institution has the following research output in the current window (1 June 2025 - 30 May 2026) of the Nature Index. Click on Count to view a list of articles representing the corresponding Share value.

Overall research output

Count Share
Overall 324 32.30

Overall Count and Share for 'Smithsonian Institution' based on the 12-month time frame mentioned above.

View all articles

Research outputs by subject area

Note: Natural sciences includes biological sciences, chemistry, Earth & environmental sciences and physical sciences.
Subject Count Share
Applied sciences 24 2.54
Biological sciences 58 10.54
Chemistry 5 0.45
Earth & environmental sciences 48 5.24
Health sciences 4 0.45
Physical sciences 170 12.13
Social sciences 15 0.95

Note: Hover over the donut graph to view the Share for each subject.

Leading research topics

In the Current Index (12-month rolling window), Smithsonian Institution published the most articles in these research topics. Learn more about Nature Research Intelligence Topics.
Topics Count Share
Astronomical Sciences 157 11.28
Ecology 25 6.22
Evolutionary Biology 17 2.35
Geology 7 1.49
Atmospheric Sciences 17 1.26
Zoology 7 1.18
Forestry Sciences 10 0.94

View all topics

Share output for the past 5 years

Subject area or journal group 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Overall 32 24 27 27 30
Applied sciences 2 2 2 3 0
Health sciences 0 0 1 0 0
Natural sciences 28 22 23 24 0
Biological sciences 11 6 7 8 0
Chemistry 2 1 1 0 0
Earth & environmental sciences 4 5 5 5 0
Physical sciences 12 10 11 11 0
Social sciences 2 1 1 0 0
Nature & Science 1 2 4 2 2

Institution benchmarking

Nature Strategy Reports
Turn complex research questions into confident strategic decisions 

When you're under pressure to set direction, justify investment, or understand your competitive position, you need more than raw data — you need trusted insights you can act on.

  • Benchmark your performance against global peers using robust, methodologically sound analysis.

  • Combine quantitative metrics with qualitative expert insight to uncover strengths, gaps and emerging opportunities.

  • Gain tailored, decision-ready recommendations aligned to your strategic priorities.

Talk to us to learn more about our data dashboards and bespoke strategy reports.

Nature Masterclasses
Grow research skills, confidence and careers with training built for every stage of the research lifecycle.

Developed with Nature Portfolio journal Editors and internationally renowned experts. Discover three ways to learn:

  • Self-paced, online courses in convenient bite-sized units, covering key skills across scientific writing, publishing, grant writing, data analysis, and more.

  • Expert trainer-led workshops with hands-on exercises and real-time feedback across core research skills, delivered via interactive group sessions.

  • Editor-led workshops combining core principles in writing and publishing, personalised 1:1 feedback from Nature Portfolio Editors and hands-on exercises.

Explore course catalogues and workshop agendas, enquire about the options or request institutional pricing.

Collaboration

Nature Index collaborations highlight fruitful collaborations that lead to high quality research around the world. A collaboration can be between any two institutions or locations co-authoring at least one article in the journals tracked by the Nature Index. The collaboration score between two institutions is the sum of each of their Shares on the papers to which both have contributed. The table and charts below highlight the leading collaborators with Smithsonian Institution.

International vs domestic collaboration by Share

Type Percentage
International (34 institutions) 29.2%
Domestic (31 institutions) 70.8%

Note: Hover over the pie chart to view the Share for each collaboration type.

Note: Hover over the graph to view collaboration by percentage of Share.

Top 5 domestic collaborators with Smithsonian Institution by Share

Collaborating institutions

Note: Hover over the bars to view details about each institution's Share.

Collaborating Institution Collaborators' Share Collaboration Score
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) 13.35 / 26.66 40.01
Harvard University 13.88 / 20.45 34.33
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 4.16 / 6.73 10.89
University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) 3.66 / 6.20 9.87
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) 3.76 / 1.83 5.59

Top 5 international collaborators with Smithsonian Institution by Share

Collaborating institutions

Note: Hover over the bars to view details about each institution's Share.

Collaborating Institution Collaborators' Share Total Share
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) 7.26 / 6.55 13.80
French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) 2.71 / 2.49 5.19
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) 2.18 / 2.28 4.46
Max Planck Society 1.69 / 2.74 4.42
Leibniz Association 1.61 / 1.28 2.89

Job finder

Need to hire scientific researchers?

Nature Careers is visited by over 180,000 active job seekers per month that you can target directly with your role. Application response rates have increased by 28% on average over 2022 averages.

Latest supplements

Nature Index 2026 Regenerative medicine

Regenerative medicine has the potential to transform the treatment of chronic and life-threatening diseases. But major challenges remain, such as overcoming immune rejection and ensuring that new therapies are developed using more inclusive data sets. In this supplement, we explore the discoveries that are driving the field, the barriers that could limit its progress, and the teams and institutions that are making their mark.

Nature Index 2026 Regenerative medicine
Access for free

Nature Index 2026 Nanoscience and nanotechnology

From programmable RNA architectures to next-generation materials for energy and healthcare, researchers are harnessing the unusual properties of the nanoscale to tackle some of society's biggest challenges. This supplement explores the discoveries that are driving the field, the hurdles that remain and the institutions that are leading in nanoscience and nanotechnology research.

Nature Index 2026 Nanoscience and nanotechnology
Access for free

Relationships

Affiliated institutions

The following affiliated institutions are wholly owned, operated, administered or contains research facilities for Smithsonian Institution. All affiliations for an affiliated institution are credited to the institution to which it is affiliated. Each of the affiliated institutions listed below has its own research profile.

Affiliated joint institutions and consortia

Represents joint institutions and consortia for which the institution is designated as a partner institution. Each partner institution of a joint institution or consortium receives an equivalent Share for every affiliation in which the consortium is included.