WorldHE NS Watch: Harvard Publishes Four NS Papers for Three Consecutive Weeks

As global competition in scientific research continues to intensify, publication output in Nature and Science has become one of the most important indicators of a university's research excellence, capacity for original innovation, and international academic influence.

WorldHE continuously tracks both the latest weekly and rolling 12-month Nature and Science publication data from universities worldwide, providing a dynamic view of the evolving global higher education and research landscape.

Click to access the complete university NS publication data.​

Global University NS Publications: July 20–26, 2026

A total of 41 universities worldwide published papers in Nature or Science during the past week.

The United States and China Mainland each accounted for 12 universities, putting them well ahead of all other countries and regions and highlighting their continued dominance in high-impact scientific research.

Harvard University once again stood out, publishing four NS papers—three in Nature and one in Science. Harvard was listed as both the first-author and corresponding-author institution on all four papers. The research covered a broad range of frontier topics, including tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs), AI-redesigned proteases, quantum paraelectric nanodomains, and language diversity.

Notably, Harvard has now published four NS papers every week for three consecutive weeks, from July 6 through July 26, underscoring the university's exceptional consistency and sustained research leadership.

The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences published three Nature papers, further strengthening the research presence of universities in China Mainland.

Peking University, the University of British Columbia, Southeast University (China), the University of Cambridge, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Yale University each published two NS papers during the week.

Global University NS Rankings: July 26, 2025–July 26, 2026​

Looking at the past 12 months, 69 universities worldwide have published at least 10 papers in Nature or Science, highlighting the increasingly intense competition among the world's leading research institutions.

Among the Top 10 universities by combined Nature and Science output, the United States accounts for five universities, China Mainland for three, and the United Kingdom for two, forming the current top tier of global research excellence.

Harvard University remains the clear global leader with 142 papers, including 91 in Nature and 51 in Science. Harvard was the corresponding-author institution on 138 papers, meaning Harvard researchers served as corresponding authors on nearly every publication. The figures demonstrate the university's remarkable capacity to lead high-impact research independently.

MIT and Stanford University each published 97 NS papers, tying for second place. Together with Harvard, the three institutions form an elite research cluster approaching the 100-paper milestone.

The University of California, Berkeley ranked fourth with 64 NS papers. Although its total output trails the top three, Berkeley is the only university in the global top 10 to publish more Science papers (35) than Nature papers (29), reflecting its long-established strengths in astrophysics, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology.

The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, a university in China Mainland, ranked fifth globally with 55 papers, making it the highest-ranked non-U.S. institution.

The University of Cambridge ranked sixth with 48 papers, followed by Tsinghua University in seventh with 46 papers. Peking University, the University of Oxford, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) completed the global top 10.

A New Global Research Landscape Takes Shape

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

Of the 30 universities worldwide with more than 20 NS papers, 18 are based in the United States. Universities including the University of California, San Francisco, the University of Washington Seattle, Princeton University, Cornell University, and Yale University each consistently produced around 30 NS papers, demonstrating the depth and resilience of the U.S. research ecosystem.

Universities in China Mainland have firmly established themselves as the second major force in global top-journal publishing. A total of 13 universities in China Mainland have published more than 10 NS papers over the past year, with overall output significantly surpassing that of traditional research powers such as the United Kingdom and Germany.

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

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

However, Europe still lacks a single institution capable of matching the publication scale and research leadership of Harvard or MIT.

The latest data suggest that the global center of scientific research is shifting from a U.S.–Europe bipolar model toward a landscape led primarily by the United States and China, with Europe serving as a strong complementary force.

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.