According to the latest data released by the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) on January 12th, 317 papers of agricultural science field of Qingdao Agricultural University(QAU) was cited by ESI, with a total number of 2006 citations. Each paper has been cited 6.33 times on average and ranked 773th in the world. It has entered the top 1% of the global ranking. This is the second time that QAU has entered the top 1% of the world since Plant & Animal Science achieved this. At present, there are 63 universities and research institutes in China that have entered the top 1% of the world. There are four universities in Shandong Province, including Shandong University, Ocean University of China, Shandong Agricultural University and Qingdao Agricultural University.

The latest data also shows that QAU's Plant & Animal Science has stabilized in the top 1% of ESI and has a good momentum of development. It has published 447 papers, with a total of 2687 citations and 6.01 citations on average. It is ranked 1140th among the top 1% of the world's organizations. Compared with the November 2017 data, the total number of articles has increased by 15 and the total number of citations has increased by 153 times, and ranking has increased by 17.

ESI is a basic analytical evaluation tool for measuring scientific research performance and tracking scientific development trends around the world at present. The global ranking of ESI disciplines is an important indicator for the academic influence and subject evaluation of universities and research institutes. According to the latest statistics, there are currently 15 universities in Shandong Province that are the top 1% of ESI, including 9 universities with more than 2 disciplines.

In addition, according to the first phase of 2018 Nature Index released by British Natural Publishing Group a few days ago (the statistical time is from October 1st,2016 to September 30th, 2017), QAU ranks 99th among Chinese universities. It is the 4th among agricultural and forestry universities nationwide and 5th among universities of Shandong province.  The nature index is a scientific research evaluation index launched by the British Natural Publishing Group in 2014. The index is based on the number of papers published by countries, universities and scientific research institutes counted by 68 of the world's most influential research-oriented top academic journals. It plays an important role of reference in evaluating the output of international high-level academic achievements of scientific research institutions, which reflects the basic research level of scientific research institutions to a certain extent.