The Nature Index 2020 Annual Tables has recently been released , highlighting the institutions and countries that dominated high quality research in the natural sciences in 2019 (from January 1 to December 31) as tracked by Nature Index. Huaqiao University (HQU) ranks 85th in the Top 200 Universities in Chinese mainland and 417th in the world.

Nature Index is calculated and counted by the Nature Publishing Group, NPG, based on the research papers published in 82 natural science journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, etc. in the previous year, tracking the authors' information of about 60,000 high-quality research papers from more than 20,000 institutions globally. The 82 journals are selected by four independent panels of experts covering the fields of Chemistry, Earth and Environment Science, Life Science and Physics separately. The Index provides the absolute count and share of the papers published by different institutions and countries as an indicator of the global high-quality research output and collaboration between multiple institutions.