Nature, the world’s top academic journal, has for the first time released the Nature Index-China on December 18, 2014, ranking the institutions in China according to their output of papers in the world’s top 68 Nature primary research journals in 2013.

The index, using weighted scores, gives an indication of contributions made by China’s major institutions and universities that furthered global scientific development. It also lists the top 10 cities for scientific output and cooperation on research papers with their foreign counterparts. The institutions are ranked on the basis of a broad range of fields including chemistry, physics, life science and earth & environmental sciences.

Ocean University of China (OUC), with a Nature index of 9.35 in earth & environmental sciences, ranks 4th of all the Chinese institutions. Others among the top 10 institutions are: Chinese Academy of Sciences (68.5) at 1, China Seismological Bureau (9.5) at 2, China University of Geoscience (including Beijing campus and Wuhan campus) (9.4) at 3, Nanjing University (9.33) at 5, China Meteorological Administration (6.52) at 6, University of Science and Technology of China (6.52) at 7, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology (6.30) at 8, Wuhan University (5.93) at 9 and Beijing Normal University (5.76) at 10, followed by Peking University, State Oceanic Administration, Lanzhou University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, PLA University of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Tsinghua University, Sun Yat-sen University, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Zhejiang University, Xiamen University, Hohai University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong ranking 11th to 25th.