Salk Institute among top 25 North American scientific “stars” in Nature Index

July 27, 2016

Salk Institute among top 25 North American scientific “stars” in Nature Index

Global, comprehensive index from Nature Publishing Group charts high-performing science centers

July 27, 2016

LA JOLLA—Salk Institute ranks as one of the leading scientific “stars” in North America with high-quality output that has grown particularly fast, according to a new report by Nature Research.

The data, publishing July 27 and July 28, 2016 in a report called the Nature Index, use a series of metrics related to papers published in the last few years to evaluate over 8,000 scientific institutions across the globe. The index, designed to be a tool for assessing research performance, charts which countries and institutions are the most efficient at producing high-quality results based on publications in top-tier journals.

Salk Institute is listed among the top 25 institutions in all of North America in the “Regional Stars” section of the index, along with other esteemed centers such as Stanford University, ， 那个 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 和 California Institute for Biomedical Research. These institutions dramatically increased their contribution to a selection of top natural science journals from 2012-2015.

“While the Salk Institute has always been a top-ranking research organization, the last few years have seen incredible growth in our number of scientific discoveries thanks to our phenomenal faculty, scientists and staff, and advances in technology and fundraising support,” says 伊丽莎白·布莱克本, president of the Salk Institute.

First launched in November 2014, the Nature Index database tracks the author affiliations of research articles published in a group of 68 high-quality natural science journals, which have been selected by independent panels of active scientists. Responses from over 2,800 individuals to a large-scale survey were used to validate the selections.

The Nature Index uses three counts of article output: article count (AC), which assigns a rank of one for each article that has at least one author from that institute; fractional count (FC), which takes into account the relative contribution of each author to an article; and weighted fractional count (WFC), which applies a weighting to fractional count to adjust for the overrepresentation of papers from astronomy and astrophysics.

David Swinbanks, founder of the Nature Index, said: “With four years of data already behind it, the Nature Index is an increasingly powerful tool to assess research performance. By identifying these rising stars, we’re given an insight into which new emerging institutions are likely to play a role in addressing some of the globe’s most pressing challenges. Providing researchers and institutions with this data, through the index’s freely accessible website, is another example of how Nature Research is working to meet the scientific community’s needs.”

More information about the Nature Index is available at natureindex.com.

About the Salk Institute:
索尔克生物学研究所是世界上首屈一指的基础研究机构之一，其国际知名的教职员工在一个独特的、协作和创新的环境中，深入探索生命科学的基本问题。索尔克科学家既注重科学发现，也注重培养下一代研究人员，通过研究神经科学、遗传学、细胞生物学、植物生物学及相关学科，为我们理解癌症、衰老、阿尔茨海默病、糖尿病和传染病做出了开创性的贡献。.

About Nature Research:
Nature Research is a portfolio of high quality products and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences, including journals, online databases and researcher services, which are dedicated to serving the scientific community. Nature (founded in 1869) is the leading weekly, international scientific journal and sits at the heart of the brand. Nature Research also publishes a range of Nature-branded research and reviews subscription journals, alongside leading open access multidisciplinary journal Nature Communications and other open access journals, including mega journal Scientific Reports and a range of partner journals known collectively as the Nature Partner Journals. Online, nature.com provides over 8 million visitors per month with access to Nature Research publications and services, including news and comment from Nature, and the leading scientific jobs board Naturejobs. Nature Research also offers a range of researcher services, including online and in-person training and expert language and editing services.

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