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Global research reputation (12.5%)

This indicator reflects the aggregation of the most recent five years of results of the Academic Reputation Survey for the best universities globally for research.

Regional research reputation (12.5%):

This indicator reflects the aggregation of the most recent five years of results of the Academic Reputation Survey for the best universities for research in the region; regions were determined based on the United Nations definition.

This regional indicator significantly increased the international diversity of the rankings, since it focused on measuring academics’ opinions of other universities within their region. The U.S. News rankings are the only global rankings to use this indicator, and the 2021 edition marks the seventh year of its inclusion.

Publications (10%):

This is a measure of the overall research productivity of a university, based on the total number of scholarly papers – reviews, articles and notes – that contain affiliations to a university and are published in high-quality, impactful journals. This indicator is closely linked to the university’s size. It is also influenced by the university’s discipline focus, since some disciplines, particularly medicine, publish more than others.

Books (2.5%):

Books are an important medium of publication for scholarly research, particularly in the social sciences and arts and humanities. The ranking indicator provides a useful supplement to the data on articles and better represents universities that have a focus on social sciences and arts and humanities.

Conferences (2.5%):

Academic conferences are an important venue for scholarly communication, particularly in disciplines tied to engineering and computer science. The formal publication of conference proceedings can represent genuine research breakthroughs in certain fields that may not have been documented or published elsewhere.

Normalized citation impact (10%):

The total number of citations per paper represents the overall impact of the research of the university and is independent of the university’s size or age; the value is normalized to overcome differences in research area, the paper’s publication year and publication type.

Total citations (7.5%):

This indicator measures how influential the university has been on the global research community. It is determined by multiplying the publications ranking factor by the normalized citation impact factor. Total citations have been normalized to overcome differences in research area, publication year of the paper and publication type.

Number of publications that are among the 10% most cited (12.5%):

This indicator reflects the number of papers that have been assigned as being in the top 10% of the most highly cited papers in the world for their respective fields. Each paper is given a percentile score that represents where it falls, in terms of citation rank, compared with similar papers – those with the same publication year, subject and document type.

Percentage of total publications that are among the 10% most cited (10%):

This indicator is the percentage of a university’s total papers that are among the top 10% of the most highly cited papers in the world – per field and publication year. It is a measure of the amount of excellent research the university produces and is independent of the university’s size.

Number of publications that are among the 10% most cited (12.5%):

International collaboration – relative to country (5%):

This indicator is the proportion of the institution’s total papers that contain international co-authors divided by the proportion of internationally co-authored papers for the country that the university is in. It shows how international the research papers are compared with the country in which the institution is based.