Korean media: China ranks first with an absolute advantage in the "Nature Index"!
On July 12, South Korean media outlet *Herald Economy* published an article stating that China has maintained the top position for the third consecutive year in the "Nature Index," a metric measuring global research capabilities. South Korea's ranking remained unchanged from last year, placing seventh.
Recently, Springer Nature, the international academic publisher behind the journal *Nature*, released the report titled "2026 Nature Index Research Leaders."
The Nature Index is compiled by Springer Nature Group based on factors such as the number of papers published in top-tier academic journals and their impact.
While the Nature Index primarily evaluates fundamental sciences and medicine, this year it expanded its scope to include 17 additional applied science journals and 15 social science journals.
The most striking result is China’s overwhelming dominance. Over the past decade, China’s scientific contributions have grown significantly, far surpassing those of the United States. China now leads globally in scientific research, particularly in chemistry, physics, materials science, and earth and environmental sciences, with numerous leading research institutions being Chinese. The number of scientific outputs in 2025 increased by 22.4% compared to 2024.
The United States ranks second, followed by Germany, the UK, Japan, France, South Korea, India, Canada, and Italy.
Among the top ten countries, only China achieved a growth rate exceeding 10%. Japan and South Korea also saw research performance growth rates of around 9%, highlighting a clear growth trend in East Asia.
In applied sciences, South Korea ranks third with a research output growth rate of 14%, showing a significant upward trend; however, it ranks eighth in natural sciences, indicating relatively weaker performance in foundational research.
China Academy of Sciences ranks first among institutions. Since data collection began in 2015, Harvard University of the United States has for the first time lost the top spot in university rankings to Zhejiang University of China.
Besides Harvard, Chinese institutions or universities occupy the top 12 positions, while Germany’s Max Planck Society dropped to 13th place, falling out of the top 10.
In South Korea, Seoul National University ranks 58th, down six spots from last year. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) rose two places to rank 80th.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1870473089549513/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.