(Open access funding provided by Semmelweis University)
(RRF-2.3.1-21-2022-00015)
(2020-1.1.6-JOVO-2021-00013)
Nemzeti Gyógyszerkutatási és Fejlesztési Laboratórium (PharmaLab)(RRF-2.3.1-21-2022-00015)
Támogató: NKFIH
A growing interest for demonstrating prestige and status of higher education institutions
has spurred the establishment of several international ranking systems. A major percentage
of these rankings include parameters related to scientific productivity. Here, we
examined the differences between diverse rankings as well as correlation with bibliometric
parameters and disciplines for the top universities. We investigated the top 300 universities
from four international rankings, the Times Higher Education World University Ranking
(THE), the QS World University Rankings (QS) the ShanghaiRanking-Academic Ranking
of World Universities (ARWU) and the U.S.News Best Global Universities Ranking (USNews).
The assessed parameters include ranking positions, size related and bibliometrics-related
indicators of each selected ranking. The weight of scientometric parameters ranges
between 20% (QS) and 75% (USNews). The most important parameters defining ranking
positions include citations, international reputation, and the number of researchers,
but the correlation strength varies among ranking systems. The absolute number of
publications and citations are particularly important in ARWU and USNews rankings,
and scientific category normalized (field weighted) citation impact is central in
THE and USNews rankings. Our results confirm that universities having outstanding
results in rankings using size-independent indicators (QS and THE) compared to others
have significantly lower number of students. High impact research can improve position
in ARWU and USNews ranking lists. Regarding to different disciplines, the main results
show that outstanding universities in THE ranking have higher publication activity
in social sciences and universities which perform better in USNews and QS ranking
have more publications in science, technology, and medicine fields and lower score
in social sciences. In brief, here we present a comprehensive analysis of the correlation
between scientometric parameters and university ranking positions, as well as the
performance of outstanding universities and their correlation with different disciplines,
to help decision makers select parameters for strengthening and to attract the interest
of prospective students and their parents via a better understanding of the functions
of different ranks.
