The 2018 Nature Index rankings for global universities and institutions were announced recently. They were based on Nature Index data collected from March 1, 2017 to February 28, 2018. Hunan University had a weighted fractional count (WFC) of 81.67, ranking 19th nationwide.

Nature index reveals a university’s research strength of article publication in 68 top-tier natural science journals, such as nature, science, and cell. It is also a data base that traces research outputs published in the world's most influential journals, and the Nature Index rankings are based on the WFC.