São Paulo climbs ranking of cities that contribute most to world’s best science

Brazil’s largest city jumped 33 places in the Nature Index 2021 Science Cities, from 172th place to 139th.

By Elton Alisson  |  Agência FAPESP – São Paulo has risen 33 positions in Nature Index Science Cities, a Nature supplement that ranks cities by their contributions to the world’s high-impact science.

In the 2020 edition, São Paulo ranked 172th out of 200 cities. In the 2021 edition, it ranks 139th and is the only Latin American city on the list.

“Doing science is a vital activity, and doing relevant science with a high impact factor is even more important, but neither can be established overnight. They require decades of continuous investment and a strategic focus on cutting-edge science. Hence the importance of FAPESP’s consistent support for ambitious research initiatives, first via Thematic Projects and then via the RIDC [Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers] and Young Investigator programs. More recently, we have systematically aligned our actions with the UN Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs]. It’s great to see the fruits of this long-term strategy appearing,” says Luiz Eugênio Mello, FAPESP’s Scientific Director.

“We believe long-term investment is crucial for science. São Paulo is a city that despite political or economic changes has always prioritized investing in science and technology through FAPESP, one of Brazil’s leading funders of science, alongside federal support,” says Adiene Teixeira, Springer Nature’s Director of Institutional Sales for Latin America and the Caribbean.

“We also attribute [São Paulo’s position in the rank order] to the investment made via the CAPES journal portal, one of the world’s largest scientific information resources. Access to information is a major component of high-impact science.”

Nature Index is a database of author affiliations and institutional relationships. The index tracks contributions to research articles published in 82 high-quality science journals, including Nature, Science and Cell. The journals are chosen by panels of leading independent academics in natural sciences who are asked to name the journals in which they would most like to publish their best work. The selection is also informed by a survey of 6,600 researchers worldwide. The Science Cities tracked by Nature Index are those whose institutions collectively publish the most output in the 82 journals.

The latest edition covers articles published between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2020, a period that includes the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beijing tops the list for the fourth consecutive year, ahead of New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Shanghai.

“We see the improvement in São Paulo’s ranking as due to several factors, such as the large number of studies relating to COVID-19 and growth of publications in high-impact journals. Other reasons can be explored in detail by specialists in bibliometrics,” Teixeira says.

SDG-related output

The supplement also ranks research output relating to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by leading Science Cities and metropolitan areas in the 82 journals tracked by Nature Index. Here, too, São Paulo is the only Latin American city, ranking 141st on this criterion. Beijing again tops the list, followed by San Francisco, New York, Baltimore, and Boston.

“Major federal research institutions and top-tier universities are located in São Paulo, and are often tasked with conducting important studies on SDG-related topics,” Teixeira says.