Inside Central South University's largest research partnership: Hunan University

Behind Central South University's research output sits a defining relationship: 3,932 co-authored works with Hunan University (China) in the five years to 2025, the university's single largest collaboration.

It anchors an unusually connected research base: 1,068 collaborating institutions across 72 countries, producing 117,468 joint works over the window, with international co-authors on 21% of output.

The collaborative work travels: its field-weighted citation impact stands at 2.99, where the world average is 1.0.

The Research Collaboration Index, the first global account of how universities actually collaborate, publishes its first full edition on Tuesday 15 September at 09:00 UK.

Every figure derives from the open global research record and is checkable at source.