NUS snags 39th place on global index based on science output

NUS snags 39th place on global index based on science output

The National University of Singapore (NUS) came in 39th place in a new ranking by international publishing company Nature Publishing Group yesterday, making it the highest-ranked Singapore institution on the index.

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) was ranked 42nd, while the Agency for Science, Technology and Research was ranked 133rd. Ranked as the world's top institution was China's Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The inaugural index looks at the high-quality science outputs of 20,000 institutions around the world, tracking the author affiliations of nearly 60,000 high-quality scientific articles published a year.

The current index differs from the Nature Publishing Index, which was announced in March. The Nature Publishing Index was calculated from research articles published in 18 journals by Nature Publishing Group.

But the Nature Index took into account articles chosen from 68 nature science journals.

The journals were picked by researchers as publications they would choose to publish their best work in.

The journals were selected by two independent panels of active scientists, chaired by Professor John Morton from University College London and Dr Yin-biao Sun from King's College.

At the country level, Singapore was ranked 17th on the Nature Index. In first place was the United States.

NUS president Tan Chorh Chuan said the rankings reflect the quality and impact of the university's research.

"Several NUS research centres and programmes are international leaders in areas ranging from graphene and new materials to lipidomics and medicine, as well as in humanities and social science research on Asia," he said.

Professor Bertil Andersson, president of NTU, said the rankings are a "testament of NTU's success in growing and nurturing the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, which was established just 10 years ago".

leepearl@sph.com.sg


This article was first published on Nov 14, 2014.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

This website is best viewed using the latest versions of web browsers.