Methodology Released for the 2026 Nature Spotlight on Infectious Diseases Rankings

The 2026 Nature Spotlight on Infectious Diseases tables rely on the Nature Index database to track articles published from 2021 to 2025 in natural-science and health-science journals.

Search Method

Researchers used keyword searches on abstracts and titles inside Digital Science's Dimensions database to pull out relevant articles. Digital Science is part of Holtzbrinck, which serves as the majority shareholder of Nature's publisher, Springer Nature. The search process targeted 83 infectious diseases and factored in five subcategories to account for severe coronaviruses and influenza subtypes. The specific diseases and search strings matched those used in the 2021 Nature Index for infectious diseases. Articles found in Dimensions that also appeared in the Nature Index database made up the final data set for these spotlight tables.

Editorial Independence

This material forms part of an editorially independent supplement titled Nature Spotlight: Infectious diseases. Advertisers hold no influence over the published content.

Context

Methodology guides help readers understand how scientific rankings and data sets are put together by academic publishers. Clear rules on database selection and keyword searches ensure that research metrics remain transparent and consistent over time.