On June 14, according to the 2013 world top 500 university ranking conducted by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University, Hunan University ranked 55th in terms of its proportion of top 10% cited publications in identical academic fields during the period 2008–2011. It ranks second only to Nankai University among the 37 Chinese universities listed in the rankings.

Hunan University published 1,969 articles from 2008 to 2011. Though it was not among the top in terms of publication volume, its proportion of top 10% indexed publications during this period reached 14.3%. Hunan University's influential publications mainly focus on three fields including earth and life science, math and computer science, and natural science and engineering. The content of these papers not only reflected the most cutting-edge, important and influential scientific discovery and research achievements, but also embodied the university's research quality.