UNIST ranked 5th in South Korea and 160th globally in the latest Nature Index 2020 Annual Tables. In the rankings, UNIST has moved up from last year’s 4th rank to 5th, this time. Besides, it has climbed 34 spots from its worldwide ranking, compared to 2019.
The 2020 edition of Nature Index, released in April, saw UNIST move to 57th place in Physical Science sector, from the 75th spot last year. Thus, when compared to last year’s rankings in the field of Chemistry, UNIST came only 94th in the top 100 universities.
The Nature Index also ranked UNIST 88th in the world on its list of Top 100 fastest-rising academic institutions. [See the 2020 Annual Tables Top 100 fastest-rising institutions for 2019.]
The change in adjusted ‘Share’ accounts for the small annual variation in the total number of articles in Nature Index journals. Share values have been adjusted to 2019 levels to calculate the percentage change. l Source: Nature Index
The annually updated Nature Index records the institutional affiliations of scholars publishing in the most prestigious scientific journals around the world. The Nature Index tracks by institution research published in 82 natural science journals, selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields. These represent fewer than 5% of the journals covering the natural sciences in Web of Science, but account for close to 30% of total citations. The 2020 tables are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019, and reveal the countries and institutions leading the way in high-quality global science.
The top five universities in the Nature Index 2020 Annual Tables were Harvard University, Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), and Oxford. The universities that placed within the 5th rankings in South Korea were Seoul National University, KAIST, Yonsei University, Sungkyunkwan University, UNIST, and POSTECH.
Looking at the indicators for each research field that announces the top 100, in the field of Chemistry, only three universities, including Seoul National University (59th), KAIST (61th), and UNIST (94th), were included. In the field of Natural Sciences, six universities such as KAIST (28th), Seoul National University (33th), UNIST (57th), Sungkyunkwan University (60th), Yonsei University (74th), and POSTECH (83th) were named.
Meanwhile, UNIST was ranked No. 3 (nationwide) and No. 10 (worldwide), according to the Nature Index 2019 Young Universities Rankings, which recognizes the world’s best universities that are 50 years old or younger. The ranking indicated that UNIST has excelled especially in the fields of Physical Sciences and Chemistry. Besides, UNIST was placed in 8th and 9th in both fields, respectively.
