According to a new global index The Australian National University (ANU) has published more physical, earth and environmental science articles in top-tier journals than any other Australian university.

The Nature Index is a global benchmark of research performance that identifies how often research is published in 68 of the highest quality scientific journals in the past 12 months.

From March 2014 to February 2015 the Nature Index found ANU researchers contributed to 527 science articles published in some of the world’s best journals. This included 378 articles published in physical sciences and 78 articles in earth & environmental sciences.

One of the key highlights of ANU research identified by Nature is the extensive modelling of past and future environmental conditions.

In one study an ANU-led team mapped changes in global sea level and ice volumes, and showed that recent contributions to sea level rises are not within the scope of past fluctuations.

"This record provides the benchmark for assessing the significance of recent change recorded instrumentally," said the leader of the study, Professor Kurt Lambeck, from the Research School of Earth Sciences.

Over the past year ANU research has also set guidelines for how to put a value on nature, glimpsed a star explode four times, uncovered techniques to twist light and identified changing Antarctic winds as a new sea level threat.

All of these discoveries were published in some of the best scientific journals.