UMD Rises in Global Scientific Productivity Rankings
Earth and Environmental Sciences specialty ranking jumps 20 spots.
The Nature Index 2015 Global, a ranking from the journal Nature, ranks the University of Maryland No. 54 among the world's most productive scientific research institutions, up one spot from 2014. UMD ranks No. 14 among public U.S. universities and No. 27 among all U.S. universities.
The ranking, which includes non-academic institutions, is based on research productivity in the world's top science journals. Nature Index 2015 Global is based on a snapshot of data from natureindex.com, covering articles published between Jan. 1, 2014 and Dec. 31, 2014.
UMD also made Nature Index specialty lists of the top 50 most productive institutions in three subject areas:
- No. 23 in Physical Sciences (No. 5 among public U.S. universities and No. 10 among all U.S. universities), compared with a ranking of No. 26 in 2014.
- No. 26 in Earth and Environmental Sciences (No. 9 among public U.S. universities and No. 13 among all U.S. universities), compared with a ranking of No. 46 in 2014.
- No. 42 in Nature and Science Journal Publications (No. 11 among public U.S. universities and No. 30 among all U.S. universities).
To create the ranking, Nature editors identified top journals with the help of an outside panel of experts and an independent survey asking scientists "where they would want to publish their most significant research." The survey yielded a list of 68 elite journals in chemistry, life sciences, physical sciences, and earth and environmental sciences. Editors counted the number of times each institution's authors appeared in the journals, adjusting fractionally for co-authorship.
The result quantifies the institutions and countries that publish the most in the top scientific journals. The U.S. led the list in national productivity, followed by China. The Chinese Academy of Sciences was the single most productive institution worldwide, followed by Harvard University.
Nature is making data from the index available online to researchers and has pledged to update the data regularly to create a rolling window on research productivity.
For more information on UMD's ranking, visit the Nature Index website.
Media Relations Contact: Abby Robinson, 301-405-5845, abbyr@umd.edu
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About the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences
The College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland educates more than 7,000 future scientific leaders in its undergraduate and graduate programs each year. The college's 10 departments and more than a dozen interdisciplinary research centers foster scientific discovery with annual sponsored research funding exceeding $150 million.
