According to the “Nature Publishing Index 2012 Asia-Pacific,” Japan leads the region in the number of scientific publications. The Index includes articles, letters and brief communications published in Nature or its 17 research journals in 2012. Asia Pacific accounted for 1,009 publications, or 28% of the global total. Japan published 398 articles, a 9.9% increase. The fastest growth in the number of publications was for China and Singapore, for which the amount of papers jumped 34.7% and 34.0% to 303 and 71, respectively. Rounding out the five Asia Pacific countries with the most scientific publications was Australia with 223 and Korea with 112. Japanese institutions comprised four of the five institutions that published the most. The University of Tokyo, RIKEN, Kyoto University and Osaka University contributed 116, 79, 55 and 54 papers, respectively. The Chinese Academy of Sciences accounted for 91 papers. Thirteen Asia Pacific schools were included in Nature’s list of the 100 global institutions that published the most papers in 2012.

Source: Nature