UT Austin Ranks Among World’s Best in Scientific Productivity

The Nature Index, a new ranking from the prestigious journal Nature, rates The University of Texas at Austin No. 26 among the world's most productive scientific research institutions.

Not only did UT Austin rank high in the world, but was also No. 15 among all U.S. universities, No. 7 among public universities, and ranks among the top 25 institutions in three research areas covered by the College of Natural Sciences.

The rankings, which include nonacademic institutions, are based on research productivity in the world's top science journals.

The Nature Index includes specialty lists of the 50 most productive institutions in four subject areas. UT Austin made three of the top 50 specialty lists:

• No. 25 in Earth & Environmental Sciences (No. 11 among U.S. universities)
• No. 16 in Chemistry (No. 7 among U.S. universities)
• No. 22 in Physical Sciences (No. 11 among U.S. universities)

The subject area Earth & Environmental Sciences includes research in topics as diverse as astronomy, ecology and microbiology.

To create the ranking, Nature editors identified top journals with the help of an outside panel of experts and an independent survey asking scientists "where they would want to publish their most significant research." The survey yielded a list of 68 elite journals in chemistry, life sciences, physical sciences, and earth and environmental sciences. Editors counted the number of times each institution's authors appeared in the journals, adjusting fractionally for co-authorship.

The result quantifies the institutions and countries that publish the most in the top scientific journals.

The U.S. led the list in national productivity, followed by China. The Chinese Academy of Sciences was the single most productive institution worldwide, followed by Harvard University.

The Nature Index marks the fifth time this year that an international organization has ranked UT Austin among the best universities in the world.

“This ranking reaffirms the world-renowned productivity of our scientific researchers,” said President Bill Powers. “Across the physical and life sciences, UT faculty and scientists are in truly elite company, publishing highly relevant, highly cited research that is changing the world and shaping the careers of thousands of students.”

Nature is making data from the index available online to researchers and has pledged to update the data regularly to create a rolling window on research productivity.