Inside Shandong University's largest research partnership: Shandong First Medical University

Behind Shandong University's research output sits a defining relationship: 5,453 co-authored works with Shandong First Medical University (China) in the five years to 2025, the university's single largest collaboration.

It anchors an unusually connected research base: 1,076 collaborating institutions across 77 countries, producing 84,833 joint works over the window, with international co-authors on 22% of output.

The collaborative work travels: its field-weighted citation impact stands at 2.6, 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.