On june 20, japan’s business insider website, the original title: natural index ranks first and foremost “china”, and india is rapidly growing its sense of being a major science and technology power. On 18 june, the springer nature group, publishing the scientific journal nature, published nature index 2024, which ranks universities and research institutions around the world based on the number of academic papers published and the contribution of articles. Among the natural indicators this year, asian countries such as china and india are particularly well ranked. The ranking for 2024 is based on 75707 articles in 145 periodicals published in 2023。
The annual release of the natural index has given rise to much debate. Of the 2024 rankings, the chinese academy of sciences, which ranked first on the aggregate list, has top 10 in seven universities or research institutes, and again, after the 2023 ranking, china holds many seats. The top 10 universities and research institutions outside china are harvard university in the united states (2nd), the max planck institute in germany (3rd), and the national centre for scientific research in france (7th). From a university perspective, harvard was ranked first, but the remaining nine top 10 universities were from china. In terms of the number of national papers, china, the united states, germany, the united kingdom and japan ranked fifth。
For the first time in its 2023 ranking, china was a hot topic in the natural sciences, but was ranked second in the overall health sciences ranking. In the 2024 edition, china outnumbered the united states and was in fact the first。
From the five fields of life sciences, chemistry, earth's environmental sciences, health sciences and physics, china is among the world's top three in chemistry, earth's environmental sciences and physics. The united states remains at the top of the list of life sciences and health sciences. Simon baker, editor-in-chief of the natural index, said: “year after year, we see similar patterns throughout the index, such as the rapid growth of china”
India's rapid growth has also been remarkable, rising from the eleventh in 2023 to the ninth in the edition. Although far less than the leading china, which was the subject of the evaluation, india grew by 14. 5 per cent compared to china's 13. 6 per cent growth rate, which is comparable to that of china. (dramatic translation)
