2017 Research Leaders: Leading institutions in physical sciences

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

Table criteria

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Position Institution Share 2015 Share 2016 Count 2016 Change in Share 2015–2016
1 Max Planck Society, Germany 193.82 203.70 791
5.1%
2 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 189.60 185.49 652
-2.2%
3 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 192.39 178.62 1182
-7.2%
4 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 126.18 114.84 565
-9.0%
5 National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy 118.26 112.28 577
-5.1%
6 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 105.60 107.80 466
2.1%
7 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 126.77 105.37 401
-16.9%
8 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 103.18 101.21 378
-1.9%
9 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 83.80 100.39 423
19.8%
10 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 100.60 84.39 316
-16.1%
11 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 67.84 80.21 322
18.2%
12 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 70.02 72.05 306
2.9%
13 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 77.10 70.70 372
-8.3%
14 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 49.33 70.18 279
42.3%
15 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 75.37 69.23 415
-8.2%
16 Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Russia 61.74 65.43 422
6.0%
17 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States of America (USA) 50.16 63.30 321
26.2%
18 University of Maryland (UMD), United States of America (USA) 65.11 59.68 389
-8.3%
19 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 75.70 57.44 203
-24.1%
20 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 45.82 55.12 496
20.3%
21 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 51.37 54.98 227
7.0%
22 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 59.40 53.99 193
-9.1%
23 European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland 61.53 52.53 342
-14.6%
24 Durham University, United Kingdom (UK) 38.01 52.37 123
37.8%
25 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 58.99 50.67 306
-14.1%
26 Peking University (PKU), China 55.95 50.62 261
-9.5%
27 University of Paris-Saclay, France 46.24 47.67 421
3.1%
28 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 57.20 47.06 305
-17.7%
29 RIKEN, Japan 45.87 46.73 184
1.9%
30 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 27.86 46.63 200
67.4%
31 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 33.68 45.80 278
36.0%
32 Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), India 38.34 44.81 141
16.9%
33 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 43.74 43.94 285
0.5%
34 Tohoku University, Japan 44.48 43.75 207
-1.6%
35 Kyoto University, Japan 49.14 43.61 195
-11.2%
36 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 46.76 42.71 217
-8.7%
37 Nanjing University (NJU), China 23.59 40.30 190
70.8%
38 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 30.71 40.28 153
31.2%
39 Tsinghua University, China 40.85 40.00 289
-2.1%
40 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States of America (USA) 35.58 39.78 128
11.8%
41 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany 36.93 39.28 187
6.3%
42 University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK) 28.30 38.93 142
37.6%
43 National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Italy 38.92 37.86 160
-2.7%
44 Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), United States of America (USA) 39.09 37.81 158
-3.3%
45 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States of America (USA) 33.94 37.16 273
9.5%
46 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 36.35 36.89 236
1.5%
47 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 30.38 36.03 184
18.6%
48 Leibniz Association, Germany 31.79 34.89 191
9.8%
49 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 32.50 34.79 135
7.0%
50 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 32.14 34.74 142
8.1%
51 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 28.74 34.56 175
20.3%
52 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 36.44 34.43 289
-5.5%
53 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 28.48 33.20 240
16.5%
54 Sorbonne University, France 36.77 32.70 424
-11.1%
55 The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), France 37.60 32.64 405
-13.2%
56 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea 24.51 32.60 84
33.0%
57 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 31.62 32.25 134
2.0%
58 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 27.63 32.13 216
16.3%
59 The University of Osaka (UOsaka), Japan 24.90 32.05 171
28.7%
60 Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Spain 24.19 31.69 226
31.0%
61 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 32.93 31.59 170
-4.1%
62 University of Hamburg (UHH), Germany 35.05 31.07 160
-11.3%
63 Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI), Canada 43.59 30.90 95
-29.1%
64 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 30.91 30.76 174
-0.5%
65 University of Amsterdam (UvA), Netherlands 23.02 29.67 245
28.8%
66 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 35.09 29.54 196
-15.8%
67 Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), United States of America (USA) 24.88 29.20 210
17.4%
68 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 25.06 28.80 78
15.0%
69 Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (IIT), Israel 28.52 28.39 115
-0.4%
70 Purdue University, United States of America (USA) 21.59 28.35 142
31.3%
71 Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), United States of America (USA) 25.58 28.14 175
10.0%
72 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 23.17 27.28 128
17.7%
73 Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Spain 22.96 26.99 143
17.5%
74 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 27.40 26.51 226
-3.2%
75 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 24.95 26.29 123
5.4%
76 National Research Council (CNR), Italy 29.41 25.44 137
-13.5%
77 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 33.58 25.30 226
-24.6%
78 Grenoble Alpes University (UGA), France 24.43 25.17 243
3.1%
79 Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), India 20.30 24.60 126
21.1%
80 University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany 25.72 24.16 130
-6.1%
81 McGill University, Canada 24.23 23.82 125
-1.7%
82 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU), United States of America (USA) 21.86 23.51 203
7.5%
83 Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo), Japan 27.43 23.43 144
-14.6%
84 University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 18.01 23.32 151
29.4%
85 King's College London (KCL), United Kingdom (UK) 31.49 22.93 85
-27.2%
86 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 26.63 22.90 288
-14.0%
87 State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY Stony Brook), United States of America (USA) 29.14 22.84 227
-21.6%
88 Tel Aviv University (TAU), Israel 24.53 22.79 123
-7.1%
89 Nagoya University, Japan 26.62 22.52 133
-15.4%
90 Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), United States of America (USA) 20.87 22.33 61
7.0%
91 Aalto University, Finland 19.46 22.13 134
13.7%
92 Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), Austria 19.83 22.12 103
11.5%
93 Leiden University, Netherlands 23.14 22.05 78
-4.7%
94 University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil 17.70 22.03 149
24.5%
95 University of Bonn (Uni Bonn), Germany 29.69 21.96 127
-26.1%
96 Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), Austria 14.05 21.75 180
54.7%
97 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 18.60 21.65 67
16.4%
98 Keio University, Japan 10.21 21.21 42
107.9%
99 Smithsonian Institution, United States of America (USA) 16.68 21.13 135
26.6%
100 University of Regensburg (UR), Germany 21.84 20.86 37
-4.5%
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Footnote

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

  1. The data behind the tables are based on a relatively small proportion of total research papers, they cover the natural, health, applied and social 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).
  2. 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/territory’s publication output in 178 high-quality natural, health, applied and social science publications. The publications were chosen by an independent group of researchers. 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.
  3. Nature Index recognizes that many other factors must be taken into account when considering research quality and institutional performance; Nature Index metrics alone should not be used to assess institutions or individuals.
  4. Nature Index data and methods are transparent and available under a creative commons licence at nature.com/nature-index/.
  5. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The Nature Index database undergoes regular updating, corrections, adjustment of institutional hierarchies, and removal of retracted papers and thus the live website can differ from the research leaders tables.

Research Leaders tables from previous years are also updated annually to reflect any changes to the database. This means rankings and metrics may differ from the table when first released.


Numerical information only (in the tables above) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International.