2018 Research Leaders: Leading institutions in physical sciences

The 2018 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017.

Table criteria

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Position Institution Share 2016 Share 2017 Count 2017 Change in Share 2016–2017
1 Max Planck Society, Germany 203.70 203.13 796
-0.3%
2 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 185.49 185.89 728
0.2%
3 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 178.62 162.29 1159
-9.1%
4 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 105.37 142.97 469
35.7%
5 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 114.84 115.73 577
0.8%
6 National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy 112.28 110.34 609
-1.7%
7 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 107.80 100.18 471
-7.1%
8 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 100.39 95.13 406
-5.2%
9 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 101.21 89.99 366
-11.1%
10 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 84.39 85.94 350
1.8%
11 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 72.05 79.59 337
10.5%
12 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 70.18 75.43 283
7.5%
13 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 57.44 74.38 250
29.5%
14 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 69.23 70.51 388
1.9%
15 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 70.70 68.14 426
-3.6%
16 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 80.21 64.59 332
-19.5%
17 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 55.12 63.89 574
15.9%
18 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 53.99 62.15 235
15.1%
19 Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Russia 65.43 61.58 464
-5.9%
20 Kyoto University, Japan 43.61 59.39 205
36.2%
21 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 54.98 58.38 254
6.2%
22 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States of America (USA) 63.30 56.27 327
-11.1%
23 Peking University (PKU), China 50.62 56.03 348
10.7%
24 European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland 52.53 55.57 394
5.8%
25 University of Maryland (UMD), United States of America (USA) 59.68 55.37 392
-7.2%
26 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 40.28 51.50 185
27.9%
27 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 43.94 50.59 277
15.1%
28 Tsinghua University, China 40.00 48.85 325
22.1%
29 Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), India 44.81 48.21 171
7.6%
30 Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI), Canada 30.90 47.45 118
53.5%
31 RIKEN, Japan 46.73 44.66 204
-4.4%
32 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany 39.28 44.30 201
12.8%
33 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 50.67 43.93 319
-13.3%
34 Durham University, United Kingdom (UK) 52.37 42.99 110
-17.9%
35 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 47.06 42.90 286
-8.8%
36 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 42.71 42.88 267
0.4%
37 University of Paris-Saclay, France 47.67 41.90 408
-12.1%
38 Nanjing University (NJU), China 40.30 41.19 193
2.2%
39 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 34.79 40.56 161
16.6%
40 Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), United States of America (USA) 37.81 37.72 160
-0.3%
41 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States of America (USA) 39.78 37.10 131
-6.8%
42 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 36.89 36.86 240
-0.1%
43 Sorbonne University, France 32.70 36.28 469
10.9%
44 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States of America (USA) 37.16 36.27 287
-2.4%
45 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 18.83 34.54 229
83.4%
46 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 46.63 34.35 202
-26.3%
47 Leibniz Association, Germany 34.89 34.26 187
-1.8%
48 University of Hamburg (UHH), Germany 31.07 34.20 182
10.1%
49 National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Italy 37.86 34.05 158
-10.0%
50 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 32.13 32.67 232
1.7%
51 University of Amsterdam (UvA), Netherlands 29.67 31.98 289
7.8%
52 Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), India 24.60 31.89 164
29.7%
53 University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK) 38.93 30.80 152
-20.9%
54 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea 32.60 30.37 82
-6.8%
55 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 32.25 30.31 136
-6.0%
56 Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Spain 26.99 29.54 149
9.4%
57 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 34.74 29.42 154
-15.3%
58 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 30.76 29.42 184
-4.3%
59 Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo), Japan 23.43 29.11 141
24.2%
60 National Research Council (CNR), Italy 25.44 28.70 137
12.8%
61 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 34.56 27.93 158
-19.2%
62 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 33.20 27.92 256
-15.9%
63 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 27.28 27.81 170
1.9%
64 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 18.39 27.46 127
49.3%
65 Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), United States of America (USA) 29.20 27.03 206
-7.4%
66 State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY Stony Brook), United States of America (USA) 22.84 26.89 228
17.7%
67 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 31.59 26.87 173
-15.0%
68 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 45.80 26.56 244
-42.0%
69 University of Bonn (Uni Bonn), Germany 21.96 26.53 161
20.8%
70 The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), France 32.64 26.53 412
-18.7%
71 Grenoble Alpes University (UGA), France 25.17 26.52 247
5.3%
72 Tohoku University, Japan 43.75 26.44 177
-39.6%
73 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 26.29 26.32 150
0.1%
74 Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea 20.29 25.97 169
28.0%
75 Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (IIT), Israel 28.39 25.60 116
-9.8%
76 Tel Aviv University (TAU), Israel 22.79 25.20 141
10.6%
77 University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany 24.16 25.07 127
3.8%
78 McGill University, Canada 23.82 24.58 141
3.2%
79 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 34.43 24.27 285
-29.5%
80 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 36.03 24.17 163
-32.9%
81 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 26.51 24.08 238
-9.2%
82 Brown University, United States of America (USA) 20.19 23.67 120
17.2%
83 Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium 18.47 23.53 65
27.4%
84 Purdue University, United States of America (USA) 28.35 23.53 160
-17.0%
85 Keio University, Japan 21.21 23.28 37
9.7%
86 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 29.54 22.93 169
-22.4%
87 Radboud University Nijmegen (RU), Netherlands 19.94 22.90 247
14.9%
88 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 28.80 22.86 66
-20.6%
89 Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), United States of America (USA) 28.14 22.71 147
-19.3%
90 Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), Austria 22.12 22.65 108
2.4%
91 Université PSL, France 13.06 22.63 233
73.4%
92 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 13.13 22.28 159
69.7%
93 Uppsala University (UU), Sweden 18.87 22.23 149
17.8%
94 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 18.39 22.06 139
19.9%
95 Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore 20.45 21.58 83
5.5%
96 Institute for Basic Science (IBS), South Korea 20.26 21.31 96
5.2%
97 Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), Poland 18.60 21.03 244
13.1%
98 University of Barcelona (UB), Spain 17.07 20.97 134
22.8%
99 Leiden University, Netherlands 22.05 20.91 91
-5.2%
100 Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), Russia 15.61 20.83 279
33.5%
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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.