The titans: Institutional rankings by output and citations

	Institution	Papers
1	Chinese Academy of Sciences	121,222
2	Russian Academy of Sciences	121,009
3	Harvard University	95,291
4	Max Planck Society	69,373
5	University of Tokyo	68,840
6	University of California, Los Angeles	55,237
7	University of Toronto	55,163
8	University of Michigan	54,612
9	University of Washington	54,198
10	Johns Hopkins University	54,022
11	University of Illinois	53,217
12	CNRS	51,794
13	Kyoto University	50,381
14	University of Wisconsin	50,016
15	Stanford University	48,846
16	University of California, Berkeley	46,984
17	University College London	46,882
18	University of Pennsylvania	46,235
19	University of Minnesota	45,034
20	Columbia University	43,302
	Institution	Papers
1	Harvard University	2,597,786
2	Max Planck Society	1,366,087
3	Johns Hopkins University	1,222,166
4	University of Washington	1,147,283
5	Stanford University	1,138,795
6	University of California, Los Angeles	1,077,069
7	University of Michigan	948,621
8	University of California, Berkeley	945,817
9	University of California, San Francisco	939,302
10	University of Pennsylvania	931,399
11	University of Tokyo	913,896
12	University of California, San Diego	899,832
13	University of Toronto	861,243
14	University College London	860,117
15	Columbia University	858,073
16	Yale University	833,467
17	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	832,439
18	University of Cambridge	811,673
19	University of Oxford	766,577
20	University of Wisconsin	760,091

In its surveys of scientific impact, Thomson Reuters typically employs measures of weighted influence — such as citations per paper — to compare fairly large and small producers. But rankings by size are always of interest and sometimes instructive, as long as one realises the limitations. The table above ranks institutions across all fields of the sciences and social sciences by paper output and total citations received. In terms of the production of research papers, the Chinese and Russian academies of sciences lead the way. Of course, it should be recognised that these entities include hundreds of research institutions under one designation. The same can be said for Germany’s Max Planck Society and France’s CNRS. What is surprising, perhaps, is that a single university, Harvard, by itself produces more papers than the Max Planck Society.

Another “artefact” is the advantage held by institutions that include medical schools, which typically produce many more papers than institutions without. From the perspective of gross influence, as measured by total citations, 14 of the top 20 are US institutions and three are British, with Germany, Japan and Canada having one each. While the Max Planck Society features in this ranking in second place, the Chinese and Russian academies do not, nor does the CNRS. Again, institutions with medical schools have an advantage in this ranking, since fields such as life sciences exhibit some of the highest average rates of citation. For more information on the Thomson Reuters Essential Science Indicators database, see http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/products/esi