First published: 1987 (International universities have been included since 2014)

Database used for data collection: Web of Science (Clarivate)

The ranking measures 13 indicators:

• Global research reputation (reputation survey) – weight 12.5%
• Regional research reputation (reputation survey) – weight 12.5%
• Publications – weight 10%
• Books – weight 2.5%
• Conferences – weight 2.5%
• Normalized citation impact – weight 10%
• Total citations – weight 7.5%
• Number of publications that are among the 10 percent most cited – weight 12.5%
• Percentage of total publications that are among the 10 percent most cited – weight 10%
• International collaboration – weight 5%
• Percentage of total publications with international collaboration – weight 5%
• Number of highly cited papers that are among the top 1 percent most cited in their respective field – 5%
• Percentage of total number of publications that are among the top 1 percent most frequently cited papers – weight 5%

The rankings of subjects include: 

• Clinical Medicine
• Computer Science
• Economics and Business
• Engineering
• Social Science and Public Health

Visit U.S.News - Best Global Universities Rankings

First published: 2010

Database used for data collection: Scopus (Elsevier)

The rankings list is based on thirteen indicators, devided into five groups: 

• Research reputation – weight 18%
• Research income – weight 6%
• Publications per faculty member – weight 6%
• Teaching reputation – weight 15%
• Student per faculty member – weight 4.5%
• PhD per bachelor – weight 2.25%
• PhD per faculty member – weight 6%
• Institution income – weight 2.25%
• Citations per publication – weight 30%
• Number of international students based on total number of students – weight 2.5%
• International faculty members based on total number of faculty staff – weight 2.5%
• Number of publications with international collaboration based on total number of publications – weight 2.5%
• External funding by industry per researcher – weight 2.5%

The rankings of subjects include: 

• Engineering & Technology
• Arts & Humanities
• Clinical, Pre-clinical & Health
• Life Sciences
• Physical Sciences
• Social Sciences

Visit Times Higher Education World University Rankings

First published: 2003

Database used for data collection: Web of Science (Clarivate)

The ranking list is based on six indicators, devided into four groups:

• Number of publications in the journals Nature and Science – weight 20%
• Number of publications in Science Citation Index-expanded and Social Science Citation Index – weight 20%
• Highly cited researcher in 21 broad subject categories – weight 20%
• Staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals – weight 20%
• Alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Field Medals – weight 10%
• Per capita academic performance of an institution – weight 10%

Academic field rankings are available for:

• Natural Science & Mathematics
• Engineering/Technology & Computer Sciences
• Life & Agricultural Sciences
• Clinical Medicine & Pharmacy
• Social Sciences

Subject rankings are available for:

• Mathematics
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Computer Science
• Economics/Business

Visit Shanghai Ranking

First published: 2004

Database used for data collection: Scopus (Elsevier)

The ranking list is based on nine indicators:

• Academic reputation – weight 30%
• Citations per faculty – weight 20%
• Faculty student ratio – weight 10%
• Employer reputation – weight 15%
• Number of international students – weight 5%
• Number of international faculty members – weight 5%
• QS Sustainability Rankings score - weight 5%
• Co-publication ratio with international universities - number of unique countries - weight 5%
• Unemployed alumni and number of alumni on Forbes 30 under 30 - weight 5%

The rankings of fields include:

• Engineering & Technology
• Life Sciences & Medicine
• Natural Sciences
• Social Sciences
• Arts & Humanities

The rankings of subjects include:

• Electrical Engineering
• Communication & Media Studies
• Environmental Sciences
• Linguistics

On the QS ranking lists for fields and subjects, the reputation indicator is particularly important and is weighted up to 100%

Five indicators are used in field and subject ranking lists that vary somewhat from the main ranking: researcher reputation, employer reputation, citations, H-index, and co-publication ratio with international universities, number of unique countries. The five indicators are weighted in different combinations within each field and subject area.

Visit QS World University Ranking

First published: 2007

Database used for data collection: Web of Science (Clarivate) 

The rankings are based on eight indicators, devided into three groups:

• Number of publications in the last eleven years – weight 10%
• Number of publications of the current year – weight 15%
• Number of citations in the past eleven years – weight 15%
• Number of citations in the past two years – weight 10%
• Average number of citations in the past eleven years – weight 10%
• H-index of the past two years – weight 10%
• Number of Highly Cited Papers - weight 15%
• Number of articles of the current year in high-impact journals – weight 15%

The rankings of fields include:

• Agriculture
• Clinical medicine
• Engineering
• Life sciences
• Natural sciences
• Social sciences

The ranking of subjects include:

• Physics
• Electrical engineering
• Environment etc.

Visit NTU Ranking

The Leiden Ranking list measures research publication, research impact and collaboration. It includes publications from a five-year period.

First published: 2008

Database used for data collection: Web of Science (Clarivate)

The rankings are based on eight indicators, devided into three groups:

• Number of publications (P) - measured in terms of full count (equal weight for all publications) and fractional count (less weight for publications made in collaboration with others).
• Average number of citations per publication (MCS)
• Average number of citations per publication normalized for field differences, publication year and document type (MNCS)
• Number of publication in the top 10% of the most frequently cited publications (PP10%)
• Number of publications in collaboration the other organizations (PPcollab)
• Number of publications in collaboration with other countries (PPintcollab)
• The average geographical collaboration distance of the publications of a university, where the geographical collaboration distance of a publication equals the largest geographical distance between two addresses mentioned in the publication’s address list (MGCD)
• The proportion of the publications of a university that have a geographical collaboration distance of more than 1000 km. (PP>1000 km.) 

Visit CWTS Leiden Ranking

The ranking list includes research institutions (not just universities) worldwide and measures the quality of their scientific work from the past five years.

First published: 2009

Database used for data collection: Scopus (Elsevier)

The ranking list is based on seventeen indicators, divided into three groups:

• Normalized citation values – weight 13%
• Total number of publications in scientific journals– weight 8%
• Number of publications in the most esteemed scientific journals - weight 2%
• Number of publications that rank among the 10% most cited publications within their respective academic field - weight 2%
• Number of publications that rank among the 10% most cited publications within their respective academic field where the institution is the main contributor - weight 8%
• Share of publications where the institution is the main contributor - weight 5%
• Number of researchers from the institution with publications - weight 2%
• Number of publications in journals published by the universities - weight 3%
• Number of publications published in other journals than those of the university - weight 3%
• Share of publications with international collaboration - weight 2%
• Percentage of publications published in Open Access journals or indexed in the Unpaywall database - weight 2%
• Scientific publications cited in patents - weight 10%
• percentage of scientific publications cited in patents - weight 10%
• Number of patent applications - weight 10%
• Number of documents mentioned at least twice on main social media or has at least two readers on Mendeley - weight 10%
• Number of homepages associated with the institutions URL according to Google - weight 5%
• Number of networks linking to the institution's homepage - weight 5%

Visit Scimago Institutions Rankings

The Spanish Cybermetrics Lab (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientifícas (CSIC)) publishes the ranking lists Ranking Web of World Universities (Webometrics) and Ranking Web of World Repositories twice a year. The purpose of the ranking lists is to promote web publication, and to support Open Access initiatives in terms of online access to scientific publications and other academic material. It falls into line with Aalborg University’s Open Access Policy that focuses on free access to the university’s research.

The ranking lists measure the web performance of universities with an independent web domain – i.e. the amount, visibility and effect of the universities’ websites, with particular emphasis on scientific production. However, other material and general information about the universities, faculties and research programmes are also included.

First published: 2004/2008

Ranking Web of World Universities uses three indicators:

• Excellence (scientific output being part of the 10 % of the most cited publications in their respective academic fields over a five year period). Measured by Scimago - weight 40%
• Transparency (number of citations from the 310 most cited VIPs (citations from the 30 most cited VIPs has been excluded to avoid bias) - weight 10%
• Visibility (number of external links pointing to the university's website - weight 50%

Visit Webometrics 

U-Multirank is a multidimensional global ranking list for universities. The purpose of the project is to develop a ranking list that students, teachers, parents and others can consult in connection with decisions regarding choice of education and institution. Furthermore, the ranking list will serve as a tool for institutions of higher education in terms of improving position, quality and level of performance.

First published: 2014

Database used for data collection: Web of Science (Clarivate)

U-Multirank is multidimensional and contains several indicators regarding:  

• Teaching and learning
• Research
• Knowledge transfer
• International orientation
• Regional engagement

Based on data from these indicators, users can generate ranking lists online based on indicators of their own choice. U-Multirank is based on the classification system U-Map, which uses 'activity profiles' to identify and determine the differences between educational institutions.

Visit U-Multirank