Hunan University ranks 14th worldwide in the 2016 Nature Index Rising Stars.[27] In the Nature Index 2020 by Nature Research , which measures the largest groups of papers published in 82 leading high-quality science journals,[28] based on the data from May 1, 2019, to April 30, 2020, Hunan University ranks 67th among the leading research academic institutions globally, 25th in Asia-Pacific, and 19th in China.[29] Hunan University ranks 165th globally and 57th in Asia according to the Leiden Ranking 2020 based on the number of their scientific publications in the period 2015–2018.