Nature Index

*Nature Index*
Discipline	Multidisciplinary
Language	English
Publication details
History	Since 2014
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 categorized 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 2026, which is valid for the calendar year 2025:^[4]

Rank	Institution	Country	Total share	Count
1	Chinese Academy of Sciences	China	3655.1	12822
2	Zhejiang University	China	1276.85	3213
3	Harvard University	United States	1259.01	4246
4	Tsinghua University	China	1213.59	4062
5	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China	1191.47	3301
6	University of Science and Technology of China	China	1128.58	3763
7	Peking University	China	1066.49	4264
8	University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences	China	1055.67	5191
9	Nanjing University	China	952.65	2609
10	Sichuan University	China	880.93	1721
11	Fudan University	China	872.5	2662
12	Sun Yat-sen University	China	839.24	2160
13	Max Planck Society	Germany	764.09	3218
14	Stanford University	United States	711.53	2348
15	Xi'an Jiaotong University	China	708.45	1528
16	French National Centre for Scientific Research	France	701.98	5212
17	Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST)	China	697.95	1527
18	Helmholtz Association	Germany	682	3406
19	Jilin University	China	651.71	1332
20	Shandong University	China	615.77	1813
21	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States	593.59	2418
22	Wuhan University	China	588.25	1342
23	Tianjin University	China	565.88	1792
24	Nankai University	China	560.46	1554
25	Tongji University	China	551.06	1462

Top countries

The table here shows the countries with the highest share of articles published in scientific journals according to the Nature Index 2026, which contains data for the calendar year 2025.^[5]

Rank	Country or territory	Count	Share	Population	Count per ten million people	Share per ten million people
1	China	59472	52735.17	1,409,670,000	197	164.38
2	United States	37995	26006.15	335,893,238	868	604.14
3	Germany	12483	5827.33	84,607,016	1105	510.44
4	United Kingdom	11955	4819.70	67,596,281	1314	547.66
5	Japan	6869	3890.15	124,000,000	416	238.45
6	France	6855	2850.78	68,394,000	797	328.09
7	South Korea	4649	2827.28	51,293,934	541	317.97
8	India	3620	2437.38	1,400,744,000	17	10.67
9	Canada	5647	2355.77	40,769,890	1040	417.54
10	Italy	5098	1917.22	58,972,268	619	222.72
11	Australia	5151	1921.36	26,821,557	1312	471.05
12	Spain	4883	1868.02	48,592,909	751	256.67
13	Switzerland	4568	176.66	8,960,817	4124	1554.88
14	Netherlands	3964	1452.55	17,967,505	1798	641.96
15	Sweden	3072	1019.30	10,549,287	2267	729.31
16	Singapore	2428	900.40	5,917,600	2406	916.91
17	Denmark	2258	826.60	5,961,249	3243	1094.40
18	Taiwan	1653	752.29	23,420,442	491	180.90
19	Israel	1583	707.85	9,880,000	1466	618.92
20	Belgium	2059	688.32	11,820,117	1333	399.10
21	Austria	1825	580.12	9,159,993	1519	438.01
22	Brazil	1550	563.92	203,080,756	54	14.47
23	Poland	1629	528.30	37,620,000	334	88.18
24	Russia	1019	462.66	146,150,789	63	25.98
25	Finland	1302	435.54	5,574,011	1699	496.73
26	Iran	658	377.13	84,055,000	34	13.77
27	Norway	1260	371.66	5,550,203	1805	466.67
28	Czech Republic	1210	369.11	10,900,555	803	189.97
29	Turkey	910	318.40	85,372,377	68	12.17
30	Portugal	968	296.52	10,467,366	615	130.94
31	Saudi Arabia	881	268.36	32,175,224	142	41.26
32	New Zealand	721	209.92	5,305,600	935	255.67
33	Ireland	813	181.36	5,281,600	1197	233.60
34	Mexico	603	181.36	129,625,968	34	6.57
35	Chile	750	175.15	19,960,889	310	57.96
36	Hungary	587	152.34	9,584,000	518	98.65
37	Thailand	604	149.49	66,090,475	56	9.44
38	South Africa	724	149.19	62,027,503	97	16.87
39	Greece	661	140.56	10,413,982	515	79.50
40	Argentina	503	135.92	46,654,581	95	18.33
41	United Arab Emirates	394	101.27	9,282,410	291	40.68
42	Pakistan	422	75.22	241,499,431	11	1.67
43	Slovenia	272	74.99	2,123,103	1361	229.90
44	Malaysia	339	74.94	33,379,500	55	6.30
45	Egypt	396	62.91	104,462,545	20	1.64
46	Vietnam	213	60.74	100,300,000	11	3.61
47	Romania	374	55.72	19,051,562	180	15.53
48	Indonesia	206	52.76	279,118,866	4	0.51
49	Colombia	379	49.51	52,695,952	65	4.59
50	Croatia	258	49.11	3,855,641	547	88.52