NJU ranked high among 200 world leading research institutes and universities, according to the Nature Index (NI) released by Nature Publishing Group on Nov.13th of 2014. NJU published 391 papers in 68 NI journals in 2013, with an NI value of 194.6, which put NJU 38th among 200 world leading research institutes and universities, and 3 rd among Chinese universities. NJU’s Chemistry ranked 15th worldwide and 3rd nationwide, with its Physical Sciences ranked 49th worldwide and 6th nationwide, and Earth & Environmental Sciences ranked 6th nationwide and 3rd among Chinese universities. 

NI database is said to have traced the authors and their affiliations from about 60,000 quality research papers, covering over 20,000 world leading research institutes and universities. The NI papers are selected from 68 journals of natural science, regarded by researchers as publishers of best research achievement in natural science, which takes up 30% of total citation in natural science journals.