1. United States of America
The United States is the most prolific
publisher of high-quality science in the world, but China is closing the
gap with astonishing rapidity.
Output from the US was down in 2018 compared
with 2017, but it continues to be bolstered by its top-performing
institutes: Harvard
University, Stanford
University, MIT and
the National
Institutes of Health.
China
China’s rise in the research rankings is
a well-told
story, but that doesn’t make it any less remarkable. Its
increase in FC in 2018 has been meteoric, and it’s got the whole world’s
attention.
In early 2018, the US National
Science Foundation released a report showing that, as far back as 2016, China
overtook the US as the top producer of science and engineering articles tracked
by Scopus
Germany
With two institutions in the Nature Index Top 100
Global Institutions table, Germany is a force in high-quality
research publishing.
Its top institutions, the Max Planck
Society and Helmholtz
Association of German Research Centres, are among the top 10 in
the physical
sciences, chemistry, life sciences, Earth and
environmental sciences, and global
research institutes categories for 2018.
4. United Kingdom
As Nature reported in April,
Brexit has already damaged research in the UK. That said, it remains one of the
world’s best in producing high-quality research in the natural sciences,
retaining its long-standing fourth rank in the Nature Index
5. Japan
With an impressive standing among the world’s
best research publishers, Japan is
working hard to retain its position. While its strategy of funding selected
institutions to boost their overseas collaboration is starting to bear fruit,
it continues to look outwards in an effort to arrest the alarming
decline in its high-quality scientific research.
6. France
France’s strengths
in the natural sciences are diverse, with chemistry, physical sciences, and
life sciences accounting for roughly equal shares in its high-quality research
output, followed by Earth and environmental sciences.
7. Canada
Universities across Canada might
have reported a deluge of
applications in 2017, as students and researchers sought
respite from the anti-science stance of the Trump administration in the US and
the disruption of Brexit in Europe, but this has yet to impact on its
high-quality research output. Canada is one of a number of high-ranking
countries in 2018 that saw a downturn in FC, compared with 2017.
8. Switzerland
For a nation of just 8.4 million, Switzerland
punches well above its weight in high-quality research output.
9. South Korea
Thanks in no small part to its high R&D
spending, South Korea’s strengths
lie in the physical sciences and chemistry, and, as a 2018
study by Canadian researcher Mikko Packalen showed, in
developing novel biomedical concepts.
10. Australia
Australia has the rare distinction of being the
only country to shake up the top 10 in the 2019 Nature
Index Top 50 Countries/Territories table, and the only country
in the top 10 apart from China where FC increased in 2018. While the top nine
has remained unchanged for three years, Australia jostled Spain out of the 10th
slot, up from rank 11 in 2017.
