"Nature Index": WWU ranks among the top five German universities
Which are the research institutions with the highest number of high-ranking publications in the natural and life sciences? This question is addressed once a year by the renowned journal "Nature". In the recently published "Nature Index Global 2020", the University of Münster ranks 126th – and is thus among the five best German universities worldwide.
The "Nature Index" includes scientific publications in 82 renowned journals from the previous year. The authors are assigned to a research institution and a country, and their respective contributions to the publications are also weighted.
This year's German universities in the top 100 are the Ludwig Maximilians-Universität Munich (61st place), the Technische Universität München (75th place) and the University of Heidelberg (92nd place). Just ahead of Münster University, the University of Würzburg is in 117th place.
As the best German research institution, the non-university Max Planck Society ranks third, behind Harvard University in the USA (second) and behind the Chinese Academy of Sciences (first).
In addition to the overall evaluation, the disciplines of geosciences, life sciences, chemistry and physics were also assessed individually. As in previous years, the University of Münster made it into the top 100 in the field of chemistry, ranking 72nd.