The US News New Best Global Universities ranking by subject – main assumptions and analysis of first results Robert J.
Download ReportTranscript The US News New Best Global Universities ranking by subject – main assumptions and analysis of first results Robert J.
Slide 1
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 2
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 3
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 4
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 5
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 6
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 7
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 8
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 9
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 10
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 11
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 12
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 13
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 14
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 15
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 16
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 17
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 18
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 19
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 20
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 21
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 22
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 23
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 24
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 25
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 26
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 27
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 28
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 29
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 30
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 31
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 32
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 33
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 34
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 35
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 36
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 37
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 38
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 39
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 40
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 41
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 42
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 2
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 3
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 4
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 5
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 6
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 7
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 8
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 9
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 10
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 11
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 12
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 13
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 14
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 15
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 16
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 17
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 18
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 19
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 20
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 21
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 22
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 23
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 24
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 25
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 26
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 27
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 28
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 29
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 30
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 31
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 32
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 33
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 34
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 35
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 36
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 37
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 38
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 39
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 40
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 41
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Slide 42
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 Universities
in 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 Projects
Most 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.
Best Global Universities rankings – Why is U.S. News doing them?
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
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
A. Institution had to first be among the top 200 universities in the
results of Thomson Reuters' global reputation survey.
B. 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 , deduplicated 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities -- Countries
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
The 10 ranking factors and weights used in overall Best
Global Universities rankings.
Ranking indicator
Global research reputation
Regional research reputation
Publications
Normalized citation impact
Total citations
Number of publications that are among
the 10 percent most cited
Percentage of total publications that are
among the 10 percent most cited
Number of Ph.D.s awarded
Number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic
staff member
Weight
12.5%
12.5%
12.5%
10%
10%
12.5%
10%
5%
5%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Best Global Universities
Best Global Universities -The Top 20
2015 Best Global Top 500 Universities
Name
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California--Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Imperial College London
Princeton University
University of Michigan
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University
University of California--San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United Kingdom
United States
United States
Canada
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Region
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Europe
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
North America
Overall Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
17
18
19
20
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top 11 countries account for 77 percent of the Top 500
2015 Best Global Universities Rankings Country Counts
Number of universities in Percent of universities in
Country
top 500
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%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21
Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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 for
hard sciences
Global research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
Regional research reputation
12.5%
12.5%
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%
Publications
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global Ranking Indicators and Weights Used
Papers
Overall
Citations
International
# of
Percent of collaboration
Research Documents Documents (relative to Global
Local
# of PhD's
Power
in top 10% in Top 10% country)
Reputation Reputation awarded
PhD
Awarded
to Faculty
Ratio
Total
12.5
10
10
12.5
10
10
12.5
12.5
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
5
5
100
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
17.5
7.5
12.5
17.5
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
15
10
15
15
10
10
12.5
12.5 X
X
100
Social Sciences and Public Health
Space Science
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
In order to calculate a school's subject score, the calculated zscores 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
Methodology used to determine and rank the 21 Subjects
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 highestperforming 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.
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Countries in 21 Subject Rankings
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Country
United States
United Kingdom
China
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Australia
France
Japan
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
South Korea
Belgium
Denmark
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
838
204
110
108
90
88
84
69
67
62
46
37
35
31
31
27
27
22
20
17
39.90%
9.71%
5.24%
5.14%
4.29%
4.19%
4.00%
3.29%
3.19%
2.95%
2.19%
1.76%
1.67%
1.48%
1.48%
1.29%
1.29%
1.05%
0.95%
0.81%
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Country Counts for Best Global Universities Subject Rankings
Number of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Percent of Schools Ranked in Subjects
Country
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%
2100
100%
Total
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
Top Universities by Subject
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in the 21 Subjects
University
Harvard University
University of Toronto
University of Wisconsin--Madison
Cornell University
Imperial College London
Stanford University
University of California--Davis
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--San Diego
University of Cambridge
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oxford
University of Washington
University of British Columbia
University of California--Berkeley
Columbia University
Ohio State University
University of Tokyo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
University of Chicago
University of Florida
University of Manchester
Yale University
Total Rankings
21
21
21
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
19
19
18
18
18
17
17
17
17
17
17
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
2015 Best Global: Most Ranked Universities in Russia
University
Rankings
Lomonosov Moscow State University
196
Saint Petersburg State University
433
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
FAQ
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.
Best Global Universities rankings
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
LIFE’S DECISIONS MADE HERE.