Harvard loses first place in Nature Index www.nature.com/nature-index... #NatureIndexResearchLeaders

Harvard loses first place in Nature Index

For the first time in a decade, the US university has lost its top position in the academic rankings, usurped by a Chinese institution.

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Nature Index 2026 Research Leaders rankings: are China’s East Asian neighbours keeping pace with it? www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Nature Index 2026 Research Leaders rankings: are China’s East Asian neighbours keeping pace with it?

Japan and South Korea are challenging Western peers in a shifting research landscape.

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What do 6,000 Nature Index authors think about the future of science? Depends who you are. If you're senior, based in Asia, and in applied sciences: it looks pretty rosy. For ECRs, those in Europe/America, and in health & natural sciences: things are much shakier. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

What 6,000 researchers think about the future of science

Funding worries and publishing trends loom large in the minds of scientists surveyed by Nature Index.

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Submissions to AI conferences are soaring, with lots of fears that AI itself is to blame. Could asking authors to rank their submissions help? www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Author knows best? Top AI conference asks for self-ranked papers amid paper deluge

As submissions to AI conferences soar, authors’ own rankings — combined with peer review — could offer a powerful way to identify high-impact research.

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‘A serious problem’: peer reviews created using AI can avoid detection www.nature.com/articles/d41...

‘A serious problem’: peer reviews created using AI can avoid detection

Tools fail to identify most AI-generated peer-review reports, say researchers, who warn that the issue is only getting worse.

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How long before we see a university built with AI from the ground up? And will it work or perhaps go the way of MOOCs (ie be mostly a lot of hype)? @jacksonwryan.com takes a look www.nature.com/articles/d41...

What would an AI university look like and how might it change education?

From lectures by avatars to entire qualifications, higher education centred around AI is just around the corner.

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Nature Index is expanding to take in a selection of journals and conferences in the applied sciences. We'd love to hear what people think of the proposed journals and some other changes we have coming down the line. www.nature.com/nature-index...

Nature Index is expanding to the applied sciences

The subject area represents the next stage of the database’s evolution, and heralds other proposed changes to journal selection and article categorization.

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China accounts for more than half of leading output in the applied sciences www.nature.com/articles/d41...

China accounts for more than half of leading output in the applied sciences

The first Nature Index table on the field shows how research in the East is focused on industrial strategy.

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Fascinating blog on the growing imbalance in global science publishing between China's huge paper output and an editing/review system that is rooted in the West, and the pressures this is causing. scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/07/08/g...

Guest Post - How the Growth of Chinese Research Is Bringing Western Publishing to Breaking Point - The Scholarly Kitchen

Christos Petrou examines the rapid growth in publication volume coming from China, and how that is impacting the publishing industry.

scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org

Imaging research in the popular field of computer vision almost always involves analysing humans and their environments, and most of the subsequent patents can be used in surveillance technologies https://go.nature.com/3Gec9iY

Wake up call for AI: computer-vision research increasingly used for surveillance

One analysis suggests that 90% of studies in the field involve imaging humans.

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Hot off the press, our latest Nature Index supplement on private-sector science. Lots of interesting questions/data to explore, especially in the context of public research funding being cut in the US. www.nature.com/collections/...

Science Inc.

Corporate research is a major part of the global science ecosystem, and all eyes are on the sector amid federal funding cuts in the United States.

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We've just released the Nature Index 2025 Research Leaders, which shows that China’s lead over the United States in high-quality research output has multiplied by more than four times in a single year. go.nature.com/444uxD4 by @benjplackett.bsky.social

Nature Index 2025 Research Leaders: United States losing ground as China’s lead expands rapidly - 2025 Research Leaders

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Incredible images and a beautiful immersive article from the Careers team at @nature.com showcasing the winner of this year's #ScientistAtWork photo competition. Can you spot the killer whale in the background of the winner's pic? www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Six striking images showcase scientific fieldwork

The winners of Nature’s 2025 photo competition braved crashing waves and misty mountains to capture their science.

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Will be one to watch closely in the coming years. @harvard.edu has built up quite the lead in health and life sciences in the Nature Index (see www.nature.com/nature-index... for the latest health-sciences data for instance). Hard to see its battle with the Trump White House not affecting this.

Bec Crew@beccrew.bsky.social · last yr.

Harvard dominates high-quality cancer research publishing, having widened the gap between itself and the Chinese Academy of Sciences dramically over the past few years. go.nature.com/3EoPuQi

The US is responsible for more than half of the global public and philanthropic funding for cancer research. Funding cuts, like we've seen recently under Trump, pose a serious risk to new tests and treatments: go.nature.com/3EoPuQi

Chinese companies have overtaken the US in cancer clinical trial starts. Its rise to the top is unlike anything we've seen from other leading science nations: go.nature.com/3EoPuQi

Very interesting in-depth piece about protecting research data from the risk that repositories could suddenly (or slowly) become inaccessible. Pretty relevant when you consider how the stewardship of public data has changed in the US since January. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

How to protect research data

Contingency plans are needed to shore up important information.

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A forthcoming policy from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will target — and at least temporarily stop — funding to laboratories and hospitals outside the United States. https://go.nature.com/4cXQpnA

Exclusive: NIH to suspend funds for research abroad as it overhauls policy

Move by US biomedical agency threatens thousands of projects on infectious diseases, cancer and more.

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Amid fears of research data disappearing at alarming rates, archivists are calling out weaknesses in how the scholarly record is being preserved. go.nature.com/4cSCQpc

How to protect research data

Contingency plans are needed to shore up important information.

nature.com

We've just published our new Cancer supplement for @nature.com, which features four impressive young researchers - @oriolpich.bsky.social @frogsandstars.bsky.social go.nature.com/4iwN7c8

Four rising stars at the forefront of cancer research

These scientists are coming at cancer from all angles.

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We've just released new data on female authorship in journals tracked by the Nature Index - Nature and Science barely make the top 100. go.nature.com/4cJjYZM

Health journals sprint ahead in the race to attract female authors

Some general journals, including Nature and Science, barely make the top 100, finds a Nature Index analysis of author gender. 

nature.com

Start-ups are dominating the cancer clinical trials space, and China has overtaken the US for most trial starts. go.nature.com/3EoPuQi by @benjplackett.bsky.social

Clinical trials by the numbers

Emerging companies and an evolving market are changing the dynamics of cancer trials.

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Some more reasons for the US to worry about its position in global science: China overtook the US for cancer-research output in the Nature Index in 2024. Big news as the biological & health sciences are the only areas where the US still dominates, but for how long? www.nature.com/articles/d41...

China overtakes the United States in cancer research output

China takes pole position in cancer-related research in the Nature Index, with a massive jump in output.

nature.com

Another day, another worrying story about DOGE's impact on US science... a reminder that China is already way ahead of the US for output in Nature Index journals (See www.nature.com/nature-index...) www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Exclusive: Trump team freezes new NSF awards — and could soon axe hundreds of grants

The National Science Foundation is the latest US agency to be disrupted by Elon Musk’s DOGE.

nature.com

Good ideas — and impactful tools — don’t just come from rich, Western nations, says Aleksandra Lazić, a social scientist in Serbia https://go.nature.com/4jkTNeG

How a ‘boring administrative task’ transformed my PhD career

Nature - Good ideas — and impactful tools — don’t just come from rich, Western nations, says Aleksandra Lazić, a social scientist in Serbia.

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Evidence of US brain drain? US scientists submitted 32% more applications for jobs abroad Jan-Mar 2025 than during same period in 2024. US-based users browsing jobs abroad increased by 35%. Data from Nature Careers global science jobs platform. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Finally got round to joining BSky (its shortened name slightly reminds me of the 90s incarnation of Sky TV in the UK)... Anyway, here's the latest article from the Nature Index team, a look at how some researchers are experimenting with podcasts as a way to publish peer-reviewed research.

Can peer-reviewed podcasts fast-track science?

Researchers are experimenting with audio formats, and debating how to handle reviewer feedback.

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