Otago’s status as a leading scientific institution confirmed

Nature Index ranking confirms Otago’s status as a leading scientific institution

The University of Otago leads all research institutions in New Zealand in terms of articles published in 68 highly selective international science journals during 2014, according to newly published rankings by the Nature Publishing Group.

The Nature Index 2015: Asia-Pacific is produced as a supplement to the latest issue of the internationally leading journal Nature. The publishers describe it as “providing absolute counts of high-quality publication productivity at the institutional and national level, and as such is one indicator of high-quality research output across the globe.”

Countries and institutions in the index are assessed on how many articles they published in top journals, and also in a more detailed measure, the Weighted Fractional Count (WFC), which takes into account individual authors' contributions to articles and the over-representation of some fields of science.

In terms of the WFC, Otago came in at 91st place in the Asia-Pacific Index and was the only New Zealand institution to make the top 100. In the Index’s ‘Life Sciences’ top 50 category, Otago was the sole institution in this country to be represented, placing 46th. The University also placed 38th in the ‘Earth and Environment’ top 50 category.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) Professor Richard Blaikie says “the pleasing results reflect Otago’s continuing status as a nationally and internationally leading research institution, with recognition as New Zealand’s leading institution in this newly-developed publishing index for the second year running.”

“Our placing in these broad-based rankings clearly show that Otago staff are continuing to make important contributions to scientific progress across many areas,” Professor Blaikie says.
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