A guide to the Nature Index

"The Nature Index is a database of author affiliations and institutional relationships. The index tracks contributions to research articles published in high-quality natural-science and health-science journals, chosen based on reputation by an independent group of researchers. The Nature Index provides absolute and fractional counts of article publication at the institutional and national level and, as such, is an indicator of global high-quality research output and collaboration."

"To glean a country's, territory's, region's or an institution's contribution to an article, and to ensure that they are not counted more than once, the Nature Index uses Share, a fractional count that takes into account the share of authorship on each article. The total Share available per article is 1, which is shared among all authors under the assumption that each contributed equally. For instance, an article with 10 authors means that each author receives a Share of 0.1."

The Nature Index records author affiliations and institutional relationships for research published in select high-quality natural- and health-science journals chosen by an independent reputation panel. The index supplies absolute Counts and fractional Shares of article publication at institutional and national levels to indicate high-quality research output and collaboration. Counts assign a value of 1 to every country or institution with at least one author on an article. Shares divide the article’s single unit equally among authors and split individual authors’ Shares across multiple affiliated institutions. Institutional and country Shares are calculated by summing affiliated authors’ Shares. Data are updated regularly and compiled by Nature Portfolio.

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