WorldHE NS Watch: US Dominance Meets China's Rise

Publication output in Nature and Science has become one of the clearest indicators of a university's research strength, original innovation and global academic influence.

WorldHE tracks the latest and rolling 12-month Nature and Science publication data of universities worldwide, offering a real-time view of the changing global research landscape.

Click to access the complete university NS publication data.​

Weekly Global University NS Publications

Between July 6 and July 12, 2026, a total of 33 universities worldwide published papers in Nature or Science.

The United States accounted for 11 universities, while China Mainland contributed six—well ahead of other countries and regions and highlighting the strength of research output in both major scientific powers.

Harvard University was the standout performer of the week, publishing two papers in Nature and two in Science.

Harvard was listed as both the first-author and corresponding-author institution on all four papers. The research covered HSPC transplantation, large language models in social and behavioural science, dendritic cells and targeted protein degradation.

The breadth of the research highlights Harvard's strength at the intersection of life sciences and AI, as well as its ability to lead research across the full innovation chain.

MIT and Stanford University each published two Nature papers and one Science paper, further reinforcing the dominance of leading U.S. universities in top-journal research.

Global University NS Rankings: The Past 12 Months

The longer-term data reveal an increasingly competitive global research landscape.

Between July 12, 2025 and July 12, 2026, 69 universities worldwide published at least 10 papers in Nature or Science.

Among the Top 10 universities by combined Nature and Science output, the United States accounts for six institutions, China Mainland for three, and the United Kingdom for two.

Harvard University ranks first globally with 141 papers, including 88 in Nature and 53 in Science. Harvard was the corresponding-author institution on 137 papers, highlighting its exceptional capacity for independent research leadership.

Stanford University ranked second with 99 papers, followed by MIT with 95. Together with Harvard, the three universities form an elite research cluster approaching or exceeding the 100-paper mark.

The University of California, Berkeley ranked fourth with 62 NS papers.

Berkeley is one of the few universities in the global top 10 to publish more Science papers than Nature papers, with 34 compared with 28. The balance reflects the university's traditional strengths in astrophysics, neuroscience and evolutionary biology.

The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences ranked fifth globally with 53 papers, making it the highest-ranked non-U.S. university.

Tsinghua University and the University of Cambridge tied for sixth with 45 papers each. Peking University ranked eighth with 41 papers.

The University of Oxford, University of California, San Francisco, and University of Washington Seattle completed the next three positions.

The United States continues to dominate global Nature and Science publishing beyond the very top of the rankings.

Of the 31 universities with more than 20 NS papers over the past year, 18 are based in the United States.

Universities including UCLA, Princeton University and Cornell University each produced more than 30 papers in Nature and Science, demonstrating the depth and consistency of U.S. research output.

Universities in China Mainland have firmly established themselves as the second major force in global top-journal research.

A total of 13 universities in China Mainland published more than 10 NS papers over the past year. Their combined output has moved significantly ahead of traditional research powers such as the United Kingdom and Germany.

This performance is supported by China's sustained investment in research and development. China ranks second globally in R&D expenditure.

Europe continues to offer a broad and diverse research ecosystem, with universities across the continent making significant contributions to Nature and Science.

However, Europe currently lacks a single institution operating at the scale of Harvard or MIT.

The latest data point to a structural shift in global research power—from a U.S.–Europe bipolar model toward a landscape led primarily by the United States and China, with Europe playing a supporting role.

Methodology

For Nature, only publications classified as Article and Review Article were included. For Science, the analysis includes Research Article, Special-Issue Research Article, and Review.

Only the physically affiliated first author was counted as the first author. All corresponding-author affiliations were included, with each affiliated institution counted once. If the first-author institution and the corresponding-author institution were the same, the publication was counted only once for that institution.

Only formally published articles were included in the analysis. Advance online publications and papers in pre-publication status were excluded.