Weekly Analysis: 23 QS Top 200 Universities Publish Nature, Science Papers

The number of papers published in Nature and Science is widely recognized as one of the key indicators for measuring the international research influence of universities.

During the period from May 25 to May 31, 2026, a total of 23 universities ranked within the top 200 of the QS World University Rankings published papers in Nature and Science. These 23 universities were from the United States (10), China (5), the United Kingdom (3), Canada (2), as well as Switzerland (1), Denmark (1), and South Korea (1).

Among them, Peking University published 3 papers in Nature, while Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, Tsinghua University, University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, and Zhejiang University each published 2 papers in either Nature or Science.

Expanding the time frame to January 1–May 31, 2026, a total of 102 universities ranked within the top 200 of the QS World University Rankings had published papers in Nature and Science. These included 37 U.S. universities, maintaining their dominant position at the core of global scientific output; 14 Chinese universities, firmly securing the second tier; and 13 U.K. universities, sustaining Europe’s leading position.

Among these 102 universities, 18 institutions published 10 or more papers. Massachusetts Institute of Technology ranked first with 41 papers, including 28 in Nature and 13 in Science, while also leading globally in Nature publications. Stanford University followed closely with 36 papers, including 20 in Nature and 16 in Science, making it the university with the highest number of Science publications.

Harvard University (26 papers), Peking University (25 papers), Tsinghua University (22 papers), Fudan University (16 papers), and the University of Science and Technology of China (16 papers) each published 15 or more papers, forming the second tier.

Other universities with 10 or more Nature and Science papers included the University of Cambridge, University of California, Berkeley, Zhejiang University, University of Washington, Cornell University, University of Oxford, Yale University, Princeton University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, New York University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

The Nature and Science output of these 18 universities accounted for half of all publications produced by QS top 200 universities, demonstrating that global research resources and high-impact scientific achievements are becoming increasingly concentrated among elite institutions. Among them, 10 U.S. universities published a combined total of 184 papers, 6 Chinese universities published 103 papers, and 2 U.K. universities published 25 papers. Although the average output of top U.S. universities remains higher than that of Chinese institutions, Chinese universities have demonstrated a clear trend of collective breakthroughs in top-tier journals.

Below is the list of QS top 200 universities that published 3 or more papers in Nature and Science between January 1 and May 31, 2026.

Notes: QS 2026 top 200; Nature: Article, Review Article; Science: Research Article, Review, Special-Issue Research Article; first and/or corresponding author affiliations; each unique institution counted once per paper; print issues only; data through May 31, 2026.