Weekly Analysis: Harvard Leads Nature and Science Research Output

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 June 1 to June 7, 2026, a total of 22 universities ranked within the top 200 of the QS World University Rankings published papers in Nature and Science. These 22 universities were from the United States (9), China (3), Canada (3), the United Kingdom (2), as well as Switzerland (1), Germany (1), Belgium (1), Japan (1), and South Korea (1).

Among them, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and Johns Hopkins University each published 2 papers in either Nature or Science.

Expanding the time frame to January 1–June 7, 2026, a total of 121 universities ranked within the top 200 of the QS World University Rankings had published papers in Nature and Science. These included 38 U.S. universities, maintaining their dominant position at the core of global scientific output, while 19 U.K. universities and 14 Chinese universities firmly secured leading positions in the second tier.

Among these 121 universities, 22 institutions published 10 or more papers. Harvard University ranked first with 51 papers, including 36 in Nature and 15 in Science, while also leading globally in Nature publications. Massachusetts Institute of Technology followed closely with 42 papers, including 30 in Nature and 12 in Science. Stanford University published 38 papers and led the world in Science publications with 17 papers.

Peking University (26 papers), University of Cambridge (23 papers), Tsinghua University (23 papers), University of California, Berkeley (20 papers), Fudan University (16 papers), University of California, Los Angeles (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 Oxford, University of Pennsylvania, Zhejiang University, University of Washington, Cornell University, Princeton University, Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and New York University.

The Nature and Science output of these 22 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, 14 U.S. universities published a combined total of 278 papers, 6 Chinese universities published 106 papers, and 2 U.K. universities published 37 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 4 or more papers in Nature and Science between January 1 and June 7, 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 June 7, 2026.