Nature Index
The Nature Index is a database that tracks institutions and countries/territories and their scientific output since its introduction in November 2014. 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 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" 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.Top institutions
The top 25 institutions with the highest share of articles published in scientific journals according to the Nature Index 2025, which is valid for the calendar year 2024:| Rank | Institution | Country | Total share | Count |
| 1 | Chinese Academy of Sciences | 2776.9 | 9445 | |
| 2 | Harvard University | 1155.19 | 3915 | |
| 3 | University of Science and Technology of China | 850.6 | 2609 | |
| 4 | Zhejiang University | 819.57 | 2118 | |
| 5 | Peking University | 812.32 | 3080 | |
| 6 | University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences | 793.59 | 3925 | |
| 7 | Tsinghua University | 769.57 | 2526 | |
| 8 | Nanjing University | 755.2 | 1864 | |
| 9 | Max Planck Society | 752.22 | 2847 | |
| 10 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | 713.24 | 1936 | |
| 11 | Sun Yat-sen University | 660.59 | 1646 | |
| 12 | Fudan University | 659.69 | 1766 | |
| 13 | French National Centre for Scientific Research | 640.95 | 4658 | |
| 14 | Helmholtz Association | 586.49 | 2954 | |
| 15 | Sichuan University | 543.72 | 1053 | |
| 16 | Stanford University | 541.85 | 1998 | |
| 17 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 504.31 | 2111 | |
| 18 | University of Oxford | 442.63 | 1801 | |
| 19 | Jilin University | 436.89 | 850 | |
| 20 | Nankai University | 430.59 | 1045 | |
| 21 | Huazhong University of Science and Technology | 429.07 | 934 | |
| 22 | Shandong University | 424.36 | 1158 | |
| 23 | University of Tokyo | 424.18 | 1291 | |
| 24 | National Institutes of Health | 419.89 | 1198 | |
| 25 | University of Michigan | 417.68 | 1472 |
Top countries
The table here shows the countries with the highest share of articles published in scientific journals according to the Nature Index 2025, which contains data for the calendar year 2024.| Rank | Country or territory | Count | Share | Population | Count per ten million people | Share per ten million people |
| 1 |  China |