🏛️ Research institutions in Switzerland

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This page brings together the research institutions in Switzerland that appear in the library. An institution is included once its researchers have written at least two of the papers held on this site. The list orders the institutions by the cited research their scientists carried out while affiliated with them, so the position of each entry reflects the scholarly attention paid to work done there. It does not reflect size, age or standing outside the library.

The Swiss list is short and varied. It contains universities, one independent research institute and one company. Together they cover several cities and more than one of the country's language regions: German-speaking Zurich, Bern and Saint Gallen; French-speaking Lausanne and Geneva; bilingual Fribourg; Italian-speaking Lugano; and Martigny-Combe in the Valais. The picture is therefore spread across the country, although Zurich hosts more listed institutions than any other city. Readers who want to compare Switzerland with other countries, or to browse institutions of every kind, can use the general directory of organisations.

The page describes only the papers and people on this site. Any statement below about which institution is larger, more productive or more cited applies to the library's holdings, not to Swiss research as a whole.

The institutions

ETH Zurich heads the list. It is a university in Zurich, and on this site it has a substantial body of papers whose citations are spread across many works. That combination of steady output and consistent attention places it first in the ordering, even though other Swiss institutions exceed it on single measures.

Second is the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, a university in Lausanne. It has somewhat fewer works here than ETH Zurich, yet its papers have attracted noticeably more citations overall. The two federal institutes of technology sit together at the top and anchor the Swiss presence in the library, one in the German-speaking north and one on Lake Geneva.

Third is Google (Switzerland), the only company on the list, which is based in Zurich. Its profile stands out. It has only a handful of works in our library, but those works are cited far more heavily than the output of any other Swiss institution here, including the much larger universities. A small number of papers from this office have clearly drawn very wide attention among the library's holdings. Because the list weighs the cited work done at each place, not just raw totals, the company ranks below the two technical universities despite its citation figures.

The University of Zurich comes fourth. Among the Swiss institutions on this site it has the largest number of works, and its total citations are second only to the company office. It is the broadest contributor here by volume, and its place in the list shows how that output is weighed against the attention each paper receives.

Fifth is the Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano, the only listed institution in Italian-speaking Switzerland. It has just two works in our library, the minimum for inclusion. Those papers are well cited for such a small set, which places Lugano above several institutions with longer lists of papers.

The University of Geneva is sixth. It is a university in Geneva with a body of works in our library roughly comparable in size to those of the two federal institutes, and with a solid citation record. It is the second listed institution in French-speaking Switzerland after Lausanne.

Seventh is the Idiap Research Institute, the only entry described as a research institute and not a university or company. It is located in Martigny-Combe in the Valais. Its output on this site is close in size to that of the University of Geneva and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and its citation total is moderate. Its presence shows that the library's Swiss content does not come only from universities and large corporate labs.

The last three entries have smaller footprints. The University of Bern, in the federal capital, has a few works in our library, and they are fairly well cited for so small a set. The University of St.Gallen in Saint Gallen and the University of Fribourg in Fribourg each have two works here, with modest citation totals. Fribourg's citations are slightly higher than those of St.Gallen, yet St.Gallen appears just above it in the ordering. This is a reminder that the ranking is not a simple sort by any one visible number.

Kinds of institutions

Most entries on the Swiss list are universities: eight of the ten belong to that category. They range from the two federal institutes of technology to the cantonal universities in Zurich, Geneva, Bern, Fribourg, Saint Gallen and Lugano. The universities supply most of the Swiss works in the library, and the University of Zurich contributes more than any other.

The two non-university entries matter more than their number suggests. Google (Switzerland) shows that corporate research can carry great weight in the library even with few papers: its works are the most cited Swiss output on this site by a wide margin. The Idiap Research Institute represents a third type, the independent research institute. Its output is about the size of a mid-sized university's on this list. The mix of academic, corporate and institute research means that the Swiss content of the library reflects several different settings in which research is done.

Geography

The listed institutions cluster in a few places. Zurich is the clearest centre, home to ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich and Google (Switzerland). Between them these three account for a large share of both the works and the citations attributed to Switzerland on this site. Any reader looking at Swiss research through this library is, to a large degree, looking at research done in that one city.

The Lake Geneva area forms a second centre, with the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and the University of Geneva. Together their output on this site is comparable to that of the Zurich universities, and Lausanne in particular is strongly cited. The Valais, through the Idiap Research Institute in Martigny-Combe, sits close to this western cluster.

The remaining institutions are spread more thinly. Bern, Fribourg and Saint Gallen each have one listed university with a small number of works. Lugano represents the south of the country with a small but well-cited contribution. These places appear in the library, but each makes up only a minor part of the Swiss total.

Patterns of output and attention

The figures on the page do not follow a single scale, and this is perhaps the most instructive feature of the Swiss list. The institution with the most works, the University of Zurich, is not the most cited. The most cited, Google (Switzerland), has one of the shorter lists of papers. The institution listed first, ETH Zurich, leads on neither measure alone. The ordering reflects how much cited work each institution's scientists produced, a measure that differs from both totals.

Some institutions combine a fairly large output with moderate citation levels per paper. ETH Zurich, the University of Geneva and the Idiap Research Institute fit this description. Others have higher citation levels relative to their size. The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and the Università della Svizzera italiana are examples among the universities, and Google (Switzerland) is the extreme case. The University of Bern also does well against the size of its small set of works.

At the lower end, the University of St.Gallen and the University of Fribourg each just meet the threshold for inclusion, and their papers have been cited less often. Their presence shows how the list works: institutions enter as soon as researchers affiliated with them write a second paper held in the library, however modest that output still is.

Reading the list

Because the page counts only papers held in the library, it should be read as a guide to where Swiss-affiliated work appears on this site, not as a complete account of research in Switzerland. Institutions with very large programmes may have only a few papers here, and institutions absent from the list may simply not yet have two works in the collection. The figures shown beside each entry change as the library grows, and the order may shift as new papers and citations are added.

Within those limits, the Swiss list gives a clear outline. Two federal institutes of technology lead. Zurich hosts a large university with the broadest output and a corporate office whose few papers are very widely cited. Geneva and the Valais contribute steady bodies of work. A group of smaller universities across Bern, Fribourg, Saint Gallen and Lugano completes the picture. Each institution's own page gives more detail on its people, its works and the topics in which its researchers are active on this site.