The Nature Publishing Group has recently published its 2018 Nature Index based on data recorded between January 1^st, 2017, and December 31^st, 2017. Owing to its outstanding research output performance, SCU ranked 81^stamong global academic institutions, as well as 95th among all global research institutions (including academic, government, corporate, healthcare, and NPO/NGO). Compared with its ranking of 126^thin the previous year’s Nature Index (which covered the time period from January 1^st, 2016, to December 31^st, 2016), SCU has made remarkable progress, for the first time entering the ranks of the world’s leading 100 universities in research output.

In November 2014, the Nature Publishing Group first released its global “Nature Index,” which uses a weighted fractional count (WFC) to compare the productive output of research institutions around the world. Nature Index analysis is based on high-quality papers published in 68 top-tier journals, including theNatureseries,Science,Celland others. It tracks the affiliations of approximately 60,000 high-quality research articles, covering 20,000 universities and research institutes worldwide. The 68 science journals, which are selected by two independent panels consisting of in-service scientists, are divided into four fields, namely chemistry, earth and environment sciences, life sciences and physical sciences. According to the latest index, SCU ranks 39^thin chemistry, 246^thin physics and 270^thin life sciences globally.