Nature Index: Tracking research output and patent influence using the Count and Share method, and a guide to the online tool available at natureindex.com

A description of the terminology and methodology used in this supplement, and a guide to the functionality that is available free online at natureindex.com.

Count and Share are used to track research output. Count of 1 is given to each article that features at least one author from a country or institution. This is the case no matter the amount of authors, and it means that any single article can contribute to the Count of multiple countries or institutions.

Adjusted Share accounts for the small annual variation in the total number of articles in the Nature Index journals. It is done by taking the number of articles in the index and dividing them by the number of base year articles to arrive at a percentage difference.

The bilateral collaboration score (CS) between two institutions A+B is the sum of each of their Shares on the papers to which both have contributed. At least one article from a bilateral collaboration between any two institutions or countries can be tracked by the Nature Index.

It is possible to find more information when you look at the profile page of the country or institution from which the query was returned. The articles can be found in a journal and then by article. Research outputs are organized by subject area. The pages include the institution or country’s top collaborators and its relationship with other organizations. Users can track an institution’s performance over time, create their own indexes and export table data.

The patents cited in the works were used to derive the patent influence metric, as were two other measures that were found from The Lens database. The count shows the scholarly works between 2000 and 2020 that are cited by patents. The second was total patent citations (Patent citations), which is the sum of all citations of an institution’s scholarly works between 2000 and 2020 in patents.

There is a knowledge economy where new technologies are turned into new medicines and other inventions that help with daily chores while bringing monetary rewards. Conventional wisdom says that the success of this strategy depends on public and private investment in research and development, as well as an openness to the exchange of ideas and people across borders. Some of these building blocks of innovation have come under severe strain during the past 15 years, first from the aftermath of the 2009 global recession, then a rise in geopolitical tensions and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic and economic impact of the war in Ukraine.