Irkutsk State University entered the Nature Index 2021 and took the 49th position among the Russian universities and scientific organizations (130 Russian institutions listed in total).

Professor Alexander Schmidt, ISU Rector:

- It is very important that in recent years the scientists of our university have been consistently publishing articles in the world's top journals. Certainly, there are not so many articles published in such journals (2 - 4 articles per a year), but these journals are recognized as elite scientific ones, and the list of these journals is rather limited. It should be noted that the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation has started to refer to the Global Nature Index while selecting the winners of grant contests. Also, in general, the focus on the quality of scientific results has become a determining factor in assessing both scientists and organizations. Therefore, the presence of our scientists among the authors of the best articles is an important indicator of the scientific potential of our university because such articles result from tens and hundreds of works published in other journals.

The Nature Index 2021 covers the period from May 1, 2020 to April 1, 2021 and assesses the publication activity of scientific institutions worldwide based on the analysis of articles in leading scientific journals. Institutions are evaluated according to two main criteria: the total number of articles and the proportion of articles published in the most prestigious scientific journals, selected by an independent group of scientists and tracked by the Nature Index database. At the moment, there are only 82 journals in this list.

Among Russian institutions, the Russian Academy of Sciences took the first position, while the Lomonosov Moscow State University is placed the second one.