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A comparative study on world university rankings: a bibliometric survey

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  • Kuang-hua Chen

    (National Taiwan University)

  • Pei-yu Liao

    (National Taiwan University)

Abstract

Recently there are many organizations conducting projects on ranking world universities from different perspectives. These ranking activities have made impacts and caused controversy. This study does not favor using bibliometric indicators to evaluate universities’ performances, but not against the idea either. We regard these ranking activities as important phenomena and aim to investigate correlation of different ranking systems taking bibliometric approach. Four research questions are discussed: (1) the inter-correlation among different ranking systems; (2) the intra-correlation within ranking systems; (3) the correlation of indicators across ranking systems; and (4) the impact of different citation indexes on rankings. The preliminary results show that 55 % of top 200 universities are covered in all ranking systems. The rankings of ARWU and PRSPWU show stronger correlation. With inclusion of another ranking, WRWU (2009–2010), these rankings tend to converge. In addition, intra-correlation is significant and this means that it is possible to find out some ranking indicators with high degree of discriminativeness or representativeness. Finally, it is found that there is no significant impact of using different citation indexes on the ranking results for top 200 universities.

Suggested Citation

  • Kuang-hua Chen & Pei-yu Liao, 2012. "A comparative study on world university rankings: a bibliometric survey," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 92(1), pages 89-103, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:92:y:2012:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-012-0724-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-012-0724-7
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jean-Charles Billaut & Denis Bouyssou & Philippe Vincke, 2009. "Should you believe in the Shanghai ranking? An MCDM view," Working Papers hal-00877050, HAL.
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    4. Fred L. Bookstein & Horst Seidler & Martin Fieder & Georg Winckler, 2010. "Too much noise in the Times Higher Education rankings," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 85(1), pages 295-299, October.
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    Cited by:

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    3. A. Ferrer-Sapena & E. Erdogan & E Jiménez-Fernández & E. A. Sánchez-Pérez & F. Peset, 2020. "Self-defined information indices: application to the case of university rankings," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(3), pages 2443-2456, September.
    4. F. Cugnata & G. Perucca & S. Salini, 2017. "Bayesian networks and the assessment of universities' value added," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(10), pages 1785-1806, July.
    5. Yuniol Alvarez-Betancourt & Miguel Garcia-Silvente, 2014. "An overview of iris recognition: a bibliometric analysis of the period 2000–2012," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(3), pages 2003-2033, December.
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    7. Maryam Moshtagh & Tahereh Jowkar & Maryam Yaghtin & Hajar Sotudeh, 2023. "The moderating effect of altmetrics on the correlations between single and multi-faceted university ranking systems: the case of THE and QS vs. Nature Index and Leiden," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(1), pages 761-781, January.
    8. Hira Khan & Khairul Anuar Mohammad Shah & Jamshed Khalid & Majed Ageel A Harnmal & Anees Janee Ali, 2020. "Globalization and University Rankings: Consequences and Prospects," International Journal of Higher Education, Sciedu Press, vol. 9(6), pages 190-190, December.
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    10. Gul, Muhammet & Yucesan, Melih, 2022. "Performance evaluation of Turkish Universities by an integrated Bayesian BWM-TOPSIS model," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    11. Olcay, Gokcen Arkali & Bulu, Melih, 2017. "Is measuring the knowledge creation of universities possible?: A review of university rankings," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 153-160.
    12. Aldieri, Luigi & Kotsemir, Maxim & Vinci, Concetto Paolo, 2018. "The impact of research collaboration on academic performance: An empirical analysis for some European countries," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 13-30.
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    14. Andrea Bonaccorsi & Cinzia Daraio, 2014. "Beyond university rankings ? Generating new indicators on European universities by linking data in open platforms," DIAG Technical Reports 2014-12, Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza".

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