The 2018 Nature Index Tables recently released by the Natural Publishing Group show that the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) continues to be No. 1 in the rankings, a position it has held for six years in a row.

The latest nature index is based on statistical data from February 1, 2017 to January 31, 2018. The rankings indicate that CAS topped the 2018 table of global institutions, followed by Harvard University of the US, the Max Planck Society of Germany, the National Centre for Scientific Research of France and Stanford University of the US. At the same time, CAS continues to take the No. 1 position in the disciplines of chemistry, earth and environmental science and physical science. It ranks the sixth globally in life science.

There are 16 Chinese scientific research institutions and universities ranked within the top 100 on the list, three more than last year. Besides CAS, the 15 others are Peking University (12), Tsinghua University (13), Nanjing University (19), the University of Science and Technology of China (24), the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (31), Zhejiang University (42), Fudan University (55), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (58), Nankai University (67), Xiamen University (70), the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (73), Suzhou University (75), Wuhan University (76), Sun Yat-sen University (81), and Lanzhou University (98). In the ranking of global universities and colleges, the University of Science and Technology of China ranks 19th and the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ranks 26th.

According to the Nature Index's official website, the index employs three methods to track author affiliation information. In article count (AC), no matter how many authors an article has, a count of one is assigned to each author's country or institution. Fractional count (FC) takes into account the percentage of authors from a specific institution (or country) and the number of affiliated institutions per article, with all authors deemed to have contributed equally to the article. Weighted fractional count (WFC) is a modified version of FC. In WFC, astronomy and astrophysics articles are given less weight as they would account for too high a proportion if not adjusted.

           Source: CAS