The US News New Best Global Universities ranking by subject – main assumptions and analysis of...

The US News New Best Global Universities ranking by subject – main

assumptions and analysis of first results

Robert J. Morse, Chief Data Strategist U.S. News & World Report

A Road to Academic Excellence - Russian Universitiesin Rankings by Subject

Moscow, Russia / April 9. 2015

About U.S. News & World Report

For 80 years, U.S. News & World Report has been a publisher of news and information that empowers people to make better, more informed decisions about important issues affecting their lives.

The U.S. News team has been ranking higher education institutions in the U.S. for more than 30 years.

Other rankings

U.S. News has become the authoritative leader and credible source for data, rankings and research across many different products and resources.

U.S. News: Academic Rankings and Data ProjectsMost recent 12 months in 2014 & 2015

Best High Schools & Best STEM High Schools: April 2014 Best Online Programs for Military Veterans: May 2014 Community Colleges Directory and Search: June 2014 Best Colleges: September 2014 Best Colleges for Military Veterans : September 2014 Best Global Universities- 10/28/2014 Arab Region Universities Rankings 11/4/2014 Best Online Programs: January 2015 Best Graduate Schools: March 2015

Record Traffic and Exposure on Education section at www.usnews.com

Best Colleges launch (September 9, 2014)– 1.47 million unique visitors; 13.6 million page views to the Education

section– Traffic up 2x over launch in September 2012

Full Year 2014 – the Education section on USNWR.com had generated over 63 Million

unique visitors and 460 Million page views Best Global Universities received 7.4 million PVs from over

1 million unique visitors in Q4 2014

March 2015: 50 million page views + 7 million unique visitors

Best Global Universities rankings Best Global Universities rankings Best Global Universities rankings FAQ

• Inaugural U.S. News

Best Global Universities

rankings launched on

www.usnews.com on

October 28, 2014.

• The Best Global

Universities rankings

are powered by data

from Thomson Reuters

InCitesTM research

analytics solutions.

U.S. News started publishing the Best Colleges rankings more than 30 years ago which spawned national and global rankings. Natural extension for U.S. News to do a global ranking.The Best Global Universities rankings can help put global trends into context * Large number of students exploring options outside their own borders. * Universities are competing globally for best students, faculty and research dollars * Give prospective students the tools to accurately compare universities globally, regionally and within their own country, as well as by field of study.

Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges

LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.

Best Global Universities rankings

FAQ

• Weights and ranking factors were developed by U.S. News

• Methodology focused on institution’s research performance using 10 factors: global and regional reputation, bibliometric indicators and school level data



FAQ

The first step in producing these rankings involved creating a pool of 750 universities that was used to rank the top 500 schools. To be included in the 750•Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey. •Next, an institution had to be among those that had published the most total number of articles during the 2008-2012 recent five years using Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science , de-duplicated with the top 200 from the reputation survey.

This meant that any stand-alone graduate schools, including the Rockefeller Institute of New York and University of California—San Francisco, were eligible to be ranked and were included in the ranking universe.



FAQ

Best Global Universities rankings include:•Top 500 Universities worldwide in 49 countries•Four regional rankings - Asia, Australia/New Zealand, Europe and Latin America •11 country rankings – of the top institutions in: Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom•Top 100 universities in 21 subjects in such key fields as chemistry, clinical medicine, computer science, economics and business, engineering, environment/ecology, mathematics and physics.



FAQ


Best Global Universities -- Countries



The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best Global Universities rankings.

Ranking indicator WeightGlobal research reputation 12.5%Regional research reputation 12.5%Publications 12.5%Normalized citation impact 10%Total citations 10%Number of publications that are among the 10 percent most cited 12.5%

Percentage of total publications that are among the 10 percent most cited 10%

Number of Ph.D.s awarded 5%Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic staff member 5%



Best Global Universities

Best Global Universities -The Top 20

2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities

Name Country Region Overall RankHarvard University United States North America 1Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States North America 2University of California--Berkeley United States North America 3Stanford University United States North America 4University of Oxford United Kingdom Europe 5University of Cambridge United Kingdom Europe 6California Institute of Technology United States North America 7University of California--Los Angeles United States North America 8University of Chicago United States North America 9Columbia University United States North America 10Johns Hopkins University United States North America 11Imperial College London United Kingdom Europe 12Princeton University United States North America 13University of Michigan United States North America 14University of Toronto Canada North America 14University of Washington United States North America 14Yale University United States North America 17University of California--San Diego United States North America 18University of Pennsylvania United States North America 19Duke University United States North America 20



FAQ

Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500

2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts

Country Number of universities in top 500

Percent of universities in top 500

U. S. 134 26.8%Germany 42 8.4%United Kingdom 38 7.6%China 27 5.4%Italy 23 4.6%France 22 4.4%Australia 19 3.8%Canada 19 3.8%Japan 17 3.4%Netherlands 13 2.6%Spain 12 2.4%South Korea 11 2.2%Sweden 10 2.0%



FAQ

2015 Best Global Country Counts by Country in Top 500 & Subject Rankings

Country Number of Universities in Top 500 Number of Universities in Top 500 and Subjects

Denmark 4 6

Greece 4 5

India 4 4

New Zealand 4 4

Norway 4 4

Portugal 4 4

South Africa 4 5

Czech Republic 3 3

Iran 3 4

Ireland 3 3

Chile 2 2

Poland 2 2

Russian Federation 2 2

Singapore 2 3

Argentina 1 1

Croatia 1 1



Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects

The Thomson Reuter’s Essential Science Indicators schema is the organization structure that is used for the Best Global Universities Subject Rankings.

Essential Science Indicators comprises 22 subject areas in science and social sciences and is based on journal assignments.

Essential Science Indicators uses the Web of Science’s 12,000 journals.




Arts & Humanities journals are not included in the Essential Science Indicators

Each journal is found in only one of the 22 subject areas and there is no overlap between categories which can facilitate a simpler analysis.

U.S News did not rank one of the 22 Essential Science Indicator subject fields: Multidisciplinary



The 21 subjects in the Best Global Universities Subject rankings

Agricultural Sciences

Biology & Biochemistry

Chemistry

Clinical Medicine

Computer Science

Environment/Ecology

Economics & Business

Engineering

Geosciences

Immunology

Material Sciences

Mathematics

Microbiology

Molecular Biology & Genetics

Neuroscience & Behavior

Pharmacology & Toxicology

Physics

Plant & Animal Science

Psychology/Psychiatry

Social Sciences and Public Health

Space Science




The next step in producing the Best Global Universities Subject rankings was to create the universe of universities to determine the top 100 in each of the 21 subject fields.

The top 250 universities that had published the most papers in that subject area in the 2008-2012 time period were included in the ranking universe for each subject area.




As a result, there were many cases when an institution that had a strong focus on a certain subject was ranked in the top 100 in a subject ranking but was excluded from the overall Best Global Universities rankings encompassing the top 500 universities worldwide.

In total, there were 59 universities and one country, Romania, that were in the subject rankings but not the overall top 500 rankings.




U.S. News tailored the subject ranking methodology to the different publication characteristics of the soft sciences and mathematics compared with the hard sciences.

The soft sciences are computer science; economics and business; engineering; and social sciences and public health in addition to math; all others are hard sciences.

School-level data on number of Ph.D.s awarded and number of faculty were not available at the subject level and therefore not included in the subject rankings methodology.




The use of citation analysis within the hard sciences is well established.

However, in the soft sciences the relationship between citations and performance is less clear. There are a number of reasons for this.

First, unlike the hard sciences, journal articles are often not the main method of communication of research, and citation rates to the articles may be low.

Second, in the social sciences and economics and business, when a scholar cites another work, it is frequently a point of debate or discussion.

This is in contrast to the hard sciences, where the reason for citing another work is usually one of utility or influence.



Methodology used to rank the 21 Subjects: The soft sciences are computer science; economics and business; engineering; and social sciences and public health in addition to math; all others are hard sciences.

Ranking indicator Weights used for soft sciences

Weights used forhard sciences

Global research reputation 12.5% 12.5%

Regional research reputation 12.5% 12.5%

Publications 17.5% 15%

Normalized citation impact 7.5% 10%

Total citations 12.5% 15%

Number of highly cited papers -top 10% most cited 17.5% 15%

Percentage of highly cited papers in top 10% most cited 10% 10%

International collaboration 10% 10%



FAQ

2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used

Papers CitationsResearch Power

# of Documents in top 10%

Percent of Documents in Top 10%

International collaboration (relative to country)

Global Reputation

Local Reputation

# of PhD's awarded

PhD Awarded to Faculty Ratio Total

Overall 12.5 10 10 12.5 10 10 12.5 12.5 5 5 100

Agricultural Sciences 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Biology & Biochemistry 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Chemistry 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Clinical Medicine 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Computer Science 17.5 7.5 12.5 17.5 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Environment/Ecology 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Economics & Business 17.5 7.5 12.5 17.5 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Engineering 17.5 7.5 12.5 17.5 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Geosciences 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Immunology 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Material Sciences 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Mathematics 17.5 7.5 12.5 17.5 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Microbiology 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Molecular Biology & Genetics 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Neuroscience & Behavior 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Pharmacology & Toxicology 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Physics 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Plant & Animal Science 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Psychology/Psychiatry 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Social Sciences and Public Health 17.5 7.5 12.5 17.5 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100

Space Science 15 10 15 15 10 10 12.5 12.5 X X 100




To arrive at a school's rank in each of the 21 subjects, the subject scores were calculated using a combination of the weights and z-scores for each of the eight indicators used in each subject ranking.

In statistics, a z-score is a standardized score that indicates how many standard deviations a data point is from the mean of that variable.

This transformation of the data is essential when combining diverse information into a single ranking because it allows for fair comparisons between the different types of data.




Several of the indicators were highly skewed, so the logs of the original values were used. These indicators that were logged were:

Publications

Total citations

Number of publications that are among the 10 percent most cited

Global research reputation

Regional research reputation

This log manipulation rescaled the data and allowed for a more normalized and uniform spread across each of the indicators.




In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated z-scores for each of the eight indicators were weighted using the weights described earlier.

U.S. News determined the weights based on our judgment of the relative importance of the ranking factors and in consultation with bibliometric experts.

The subject score was calculated by summing the school's weighted values for the eight indicators in that subject. The minimum score from the pool of 250 schools was then subtracted from each of the scores in order to make zero the lowest possible score.




The scores were then rescaled by multiplying the ratio between the overall performance of each university in that subject and the highest-performing university by 100. This forced the scores to fall on a 0-100 scale, with the highest-performing school earning a subject score of 100.

The 250 schools in each of the 21 subject areas were then numerically ranked in descending order from 1 to 250 based on their weighted subject score. Each school's subject score was rounded to one decimal place in order to increase variance between scores and to minimize the occurrence of ties. U.S. News published the top 100 ranked schools in each subject.



FAQ

Best Global: Top Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects

Subject University Name Country

Agricultural Sciences Wageningen University and Research Center Netherlands

Biology & Biochemistry Harvard University United States

Chemistry University of California--Berkeley United States

Clinical Medicine Harvard University United States

Computer Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States

Economics & Business Harvard University United States

Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States

Environment/Ecology University of California--Berkeley United States

Geosciences California Institute of Technology United States

Immunology Harvard University United States

Material Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States

Mathematics University of California--Berkeley United States

Microbiology Harvard University United States

Molecular Biology & Genetics Harvard University United States

Neuroscience & Behavior Harvard University United States

Pharmacology & Toxicology Harvard University United States

Physics Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States

Plant & Animal Science Cornell University United States

Psychiatry/Psychology Harvard University United States

Social Sciences and Public Health Harvard University United States

Space Science California Institute of Technology United States



FAQ

Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings

2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings

Country Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects

United States 838 39.90%United Kingdom 204 9.71%China 110 5.24%Germany 108 5.14%Canada 90 4.29%Netherlands 88 4.19%Australia 84 4.00%France 69 3.29%Japan 67 3.19%Switzerland 62 2.95%Sweden 46 2.19%Spain 37 1.76%Hong Kong 35 1.67%Italy 31 1.48%South Korea 31 1.48%Belgium 27 1.29%Denmark 27 1.29%Taiwan 22 1.05%Singapore 20 0.95%Israel 17 0.81%



FAQ

2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings

Country

Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects

Israel 17 0.81%

Brazil 13 0.62%

Finland 13 0.62%

South Africa 8 0.38%

Austria 7 0.33%

Norway 7 0.33%

Iran 6 0.29%

Portugal 5 0.24%

Ireland 4 0.19%

Czech Republic 3 0.14%

India 3 0.14%

Russian Federation 3 0.14%

Greece 2 0.10%

Malaysia 2 0.10%

New Zealand 2 0.10%

Saudi Arabia 2 0.10%

Thailand 2 0.10%

Mexico 1 0.05%

Poland 1 0.05%

Romania 1 0.05%

Serbia 1 0.05%

Turkey 1 0.05%

Total 2100 100%



FAQ

Top Universities by Subject 2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects

University Total RankingsHarvard University 21University of Toronto 21University of Wisconsin--Madison 21Cornell University 20Imperial College London 20Stanford University 20University of California--Davis 20University of California--Los Angeles 20University of California--San Diego 20University of Cambridge 20University of Michigan 20University of Minnesota--Twin Cities 20University of Oxford 20University of Washington 20University of British Columbia 19University of California--Berkeley 19Columbia University 18Ohio State University 18University of Tokyo 18Massachusetts Institute of Technology 17Pennsylvania State University 17University of Chicago 17University of Florida 17University of Manchester 17Yale University 17



FAQ

2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia

University Rankings

Lomonosov Moscow State University 196

Saint Petersburg State University 433



FAQ



FAQ

Plans that are being considered for the next U.S. News Best Global Universities rankings to be published in 2015

1.Expand the number of universities that are being ranked overall and in each subject area.

2.Adding more granular subjects that are currently parts of the 21 broader subject areas



FAQ

Thoughts to consider about improving or becoming ranked in the U.S. News Best Global Universities rankings

1.International collaboration on papers

2.Publish in the peer reviewed journals that are included/indexed in the Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science so number of publications reaches threshold number to part of ranking universe

3.Become more visible globally

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