WorldHE NS Watch: Global NS Output Surges as U.S. and China Mainland Lead

Global university publication output in Nature and Science surged last week, while 64 universities worldwide have now published at least 10 NS papers over the past year, underscoring the increasingly intense competition for high-impact research.

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

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

Global University NS Publications: October 5–11, 2026

A total of 47 universities worldwide published papers in Nature or Science last week.

The United States accounted for 19 of these universities, followed by China Mainland with 11, putting both well ahead of other countries and regions. Notably, four South Korean universities also published NS papers last week, signaling the emergence of South Korea as a rising research powerhouse.

Harvard University and Stanford University led the weekly output among U.S. institutions, each publishing four NS papers — three in Nature and one in Science. All four of Harvard’s papers listed the university as both the first-author and corresponding-author institution. Stanford was also the corresponding-author institution on all four papers, highlighting its strong leadership role in international research collaboration.

The University of California, San Diego, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences each published three NS papers, representing the United States, the United Kingdom, and China Mainland, respectively.

Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo, ShanghaiTech University, and the University of Chicago each published two NS papers. Two of the three are universities from China Mainland, further highlighting the strong performance of leading Chinese universities in high-impact research last week.

Global University NS Rankings: October 11, 2025–October 11, 2026

Over the rolling 12-month period, 64 universities worldwide have published at least 10 papers in Nature or Science, underscoring the increasingly intense competition for high-impact research.

The global Top 10 continues to comprise five universities from the United States, three from China Mainland, and two from the United Kingdom.

Harvard University remains the clear global leader with 142 NS papers, including 93 in Nature and 49 in Science. Harvard ranks first among all universities in publication output in both journals.

MIT also remains above the 100-paper mark, with 108 papers, ranking second globally. Stanford University follows with 94 papers. Together, Harvard, MIT, and Stanford form a firmly established elite research cluster at the 100-paper level and above.

The University of California, Berkeley ranks fourth with 60 NS papers, maintaining a relatively balanced output between Nature (29) and Science (31).

The University of Cambridge ranks fifth globally with 54 papers, making it the highest-ranked non-U.S. university. The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences follows in sixth place with 53 papers.

Peking University remains seventh with 47 papers. Tsinghua University overtakes the University of California, San Francisco to rank eighth with 44 papers, while UC San Francisco ranks ninth. The University of Oxford rounds out the Top 10 with 36 papers.

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.