Nov. 13, 2014 – The University of Utah ranks among the top 100 for high-quality science in a new index of the world’s leading research centers.

Among 20,000 institutions worldwide, the U stands at number 90 in the new index developed by Nature Publishing Group. In life sciences, the U ranks 77thamong institutions worldwide in the index’s overall measure of productivity. The U’s total output of high-value research in 2013 rose by 3 percent from the previous calendar year.

The rankings are based on the number of original scientific papers published in 68 journals chosen by two independent panels of active scientists as those where they would choose to publish their best work. Nature adjusted the numbers to account for each institution’s share of papers with authors from more than one research entity, and also to account for the over-representation of astronomy articles.

An open-access website, nature INDEX, provides a one-year window of data updated monthly. Users can compare their institutions to other research organizations across the world or within a particular region or field. Nature said it is releasing the index in beta to gather feedback.