WorldHE NS Watch: New Shifts Reshape the Global Top 10 in NS Output

As global competition in scientific research continues to intensify, publication output in Nature and Science has become one of the key benchmarks for evaluating a university’s capacity for original innovation and its international academic influence.

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

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

Global University NS Publications: August 10–16, 2026

Global university output in Nature and Science remained steady last week, with 38 universities publishing NS papers.

The United States accounted for 18 of these universities, significantly ahead of other countries and regions. China Mainland accounted for eight, maintaining its strong position in global high-impact research output.

Following their strong performance of five Nature papers two weeks earlier​, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) continued their exceptional momentum, publishing four and three NS papers, respectively. All seven papers listed the respective university as both the first-author and corresponding-author institution.

Harvard published two Nature and two Science papers, while MIT published two Nature and one Science paper.

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, jointly established by MIT and Harvard, also continued its strong performance from the previous period, publishing another Nature paper focused on experience-dependent inhibitory circuit plasticity in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Meanwhile, the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Melbourne each published one Nature and one Science paper, serving as both the first-author and corresponding-author institution on their publications.

Global University NS Rankings: August 16, 2025–August 16, 2026

Over the past 12 months, 68 universities worldwide have published at least 10 papers in Nature or Science, underscoring the increasingly intense competition among leading research institutions.

The composition of the Top 10 universities by combined NS output has shifted since the previous reporting period. The United States now accounts for six universities, up from five, while three universities from China Mainland maintain their positions. The United Kingdom has dropped to just one university in the global top 10.

Harvard University remains the overwhelming global leader with 146 papers, including 95 in Nature and 51 in Science. Harvard ranks first among all universities in publication output in both journals. It was also the corresponding-author institution on 143 papers, meaning Harvard researchers served as corresponding authors on nearly every publication, highlighting the university’s exceptional capacity to independently lead high-impact research.

MIT has further strengthened its position with 106 papers, ranking second globally. Stanford University followed with 92 papers. Together, Harvard, MIT, and Stanford form an elite research cluster approaching or exceeding the 100-paper mark.

The University of California, Berkeley ranked fourth with 67 NS papers. Although its total output remains below the top three, Berkeley is the only university in the global top 10 to publish more Science papers (35) than Nature papers (32), reflecting its long-standing strengths in astrophysics, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology.

The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, a university in China Mainland, ranked fifth globally with 56 papers, making it the highest-ranked non-U.S. university.

The University of Cambridge ranked sixth with 48 papers, making it the only UK university in the global top 10. Tsinghua University ranked seventh with 45 papers, followed by Peking University with 43.

Two universities in the University of California system—UC San Francisco and UCLA—tied for ninth with 38 papers each. Notably, UC San Francisco surpassed the University of Oxford to break into 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.

Further Reading

WorldHE NS Watch: 165 Universities Published in Nature and Science in July​

Global Nature and Science Leaders, H1 2026​