The Nature Index 2024 Australia supplement – Introduction, Terms and Methodology, and Free Access Access for 2015-2024 Research in Australia and Beyond
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.
The Nature Index 2024 Australia supplement is based on the Nature Index database, covering research articles published between 2015 and 2023. The adjusted share is calculated by adjusting Share values.
The total number of articles has a small variation based on adjusted share. It is arrived at by calculating the percentage difference in the total number of articles in the Index in a given year relative to the number of articles in a base year and adjusting Share values to the base year levels.
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. The Nature Index shows that at least one article from any of the two institutions can be tracked.
You can find a list of the country or institution’s recent outputs on the profile page after each query. The articles can be seen by journal and article. The research outputs are grouped by subject area. The pages list the institution or country’s/territory’s top collaborators, as well as its relationship with other organizations. Users can track an institution’s performance over time, create their own indexes and export table data.
The top rising Australian institutions are shown in the tables in this supplement as they change in adjusted Share from 2022, while the leading Australian institutions are shown in the tables.
Over this time, the rise in open access and free to read are two stark changes. In 2015, 65% of ARC-funded publications were pay-to-read, according to Navigator, and 28% were free to read (the status of the remaining per cent is unknown). These numbers stayed relatively consistent until 2022, at the height of the pandemic, when free-to-read papers jumped to 47%. By 2023, 60% of papers were free to read and 29% were pay-to-read, and in 2024, which is an incomplete year, free-to-read publications account for 68% of ARC-funded output so far.
The biggest topic areas in ARC-funded research between 2015 and 2024 are computational models and algorithms, and clinical studies and public health, accounting for 103,840 and 101,586 publications, respectively, of the total 212,979 for the period, according to Navigator (papers can be related to one or more topic and subtopic). There were 101,866 publications relating to mathematical modelling and numerical methods within computational models and algorithms. The clinical interventions and health services research subtopic had over 73,000 publications related to it.
The United States and China were two of Australia’s strongest collaborative partners. Five of the ten leading international collaborations for Australian institutions are with US and Chinese institutions. Australia has the highest percentage of international articles of any country in the database. This figure is higher for the United States and China.
The institutions with the largest change in adjusted Share for the period are shown. The changes are relatively modest, which reflects the country’s overall decline in Share in the Nature Index as it struggles to compete with the likes of China and India, which are among a small handful of top-20 countries to achieve positive growth in adjusted Share from 2022 to 2023.
The University of Melbourne leads the top collaborations between Australian institutions in 2023, forming four out of the top five partnerships. The importance of geographical proximity in research is highlighted by the fact that each pair of collaborating institutions is based in the same city.