A guide to the Nature Index

"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. Data in the Nature Index are updated regularly, with the most recent 12 months made available under a Creative Commons licence at natureindex.com. The database is compiled by Nature Portfolio."

"The Nature Index uses Count and Share to track research output. A country/territory or an institution is given a Count of 1 for each article that has at least one author from that country/territory or institution. This is the case regardless of the number of authors an article has, and it means that the same article can contribute to the Count of multiple countries/territories or institutions."

Nature Index is a database of author affiliations and institutional relationships that tracks contributions to high-quality natural-science and health-science journals chosen by an independent group of researchers. The index provides absolute Counts and fractional Share measures at institutional and national levels, serving as an indicator of global high-quality research output and collaboration. Count assigns a full point to every country or institution with at least one author on an article. Share apportions a total of one per article among authors and splits an author's share equally across multiple affiliations. Data are updated regularly and compiled by Nature Portfolio; 12 months are available under a Creative Commons licence. Overseas labs can complicate country totals.

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