ShanghaiRanking's Academic Ranking of World Universities Methodology 2020

1. Candidate Universities

ARWU considers every university that has any Nobel Laureates, Fields Medalists, Highly Cited Researchers, or papers published in Nature or Science. In addition, universities with significant amount of papers indexed by Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) are also included. In total, more than 2000 universities are actually ranked and the best 1000 are published.

2. Ranking Criteria and Weights

Universities are ranked by several indicators of academic or research performance, including alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, highly cited researchers, papers published in Nature and Science, papers indexed in major citation indices, and the per capita academic performance of an institution. For each indicator, the highest scoring institution is assigned a score of 100, and other institutions are calculated as a percentage of the top score. The distribution of data for each indicator is examined for any significant distorting effect; standard statistical techniques are used to adjust the indicator if necessary. Scores for each indicator are weighted as shown below to arrive at a final overall score for an institution. The highest scoring institution is assigned a score of 100, and other institutions are calculated as a percentage of the top score. An institution's rank reflects the number of institutions that sit above it.

3. Indicators and Weights for ARWU

* For institutions specialized in humanities and social sciences such as London School of Economics, N&S is not considered, and the weight of N&S is relocated to other indicators.

4. Definition of Indicators

5. Data Sources

Indicator Data Source
Nobel Prize http://www.nobelprize.org/
Fields Medals http://www.mathunion.org/
HiCi https://clarivate.com/hcr/
N&S http://www.webofscience.com/
PUB http://www.webofscience.com/
Others Number of academic staff data is obtained from national agencies such as National Ministry of Education, National Bureau of Statistics, National Association of Universities and Colleges, National Rector's Conference.
Contact details:

Tel: +86 021-3356 2188-8075

Email: pr@shanghairanking.com