WorldHE NS Watch: Global Nature & Science Publications Surge Last Week

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 publication data from universities worldwide, using Nature and Science output to reveal the evolving landscape of global higher education and scientific research.

Click here to access the complete university NS publication data.​

Global University NS Publications: July 27–August 2, 2026

Universities worldwide delivered another strong week of high-impact research, with 55 institutions publishing papers in Nature or Science.

Among them, 19 universities were from the United States and 18 from China Mainland, placing both well ahead of other countries and regions. The United Kingdom also maintained a strong presence, with five universities publishing NS papers during the week.

The University of California, Berkeley delivered one of the week's strongest performances, publishing two Nature papers and one Science paper. Berkeley was listed as both the first-author and corresponding-author institution on all three publications.

Its research covered a diverse range of frontier topics, including ferroelectric cross-coupling, climate epidemiology, and paleobiogeography, highlighting the university's long-standing strength in interdisciplinary research and its ability to drive original scientific innovation.

Imperial College London, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the University of Oxford, Stanford University, Northwestern University, and Yale University each published two NS papers, making them among the week's top-performing institutions.

Global University NS Rankings: August 2, 2025–August 2, 2026

Over the past 12 months, 68 universities worldwide have published at least 10 papers in Nature or Science, reflecting 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, together forming the current top tier of global scientific research.

Harvard University remains the clear global leader with 142 papers, including 91 in Nature and 51 in Science. It leads all universities in publications in both journals. Harvard was also the corresponding-author institution on 138 papers, demonstrating an exceptional ability to independently lead world-class research.

MIT ranked second with 98 papers, followed by Stanford University with 93. Together with Harvard, the three universities form an elite research cluster approaching the 100-paper mark.

The University of California, Berkeley ranked fourth with 67 NS papers. Although its overall output remains below the top three, Berkeley is the only university in the global top 10 to publish more Science papers (36) than Nature papers (31). Its Science output ranks second among all universities, behind only Harvard, reflecting the university's 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.

Click here to access the complete university NS publication data.​

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.