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1. Ranking Criteria and Weights

We rank universities by several indicators of academic or research performance, including alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, highly cited researchers, articles published in Nature and Science, articles in Science Citation Index-expanded and Social Science Citation Index, and academic performance with respect to the size of an institution.

For each indicator, the highest scoring institution is assigned a score of 100, and other institutions are calculated as a percentage of the top score. The distribution of data for each indicator is examined for any significant distorting effect; standard statistical techniques are used to adjust the indicator if necessary.

Scores for each indicator are weighted as shown below to arrive at a final overall score for an institution. The highest scoring institution is assigned a score of 100, and other institutions are calculated as a percentage of the top score. The scores are then placed in descending order. An institution's rank reflects the number of institutions that sit above it.

Criteria	Indicator	Code	Weight
Quality of Education	Alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals	Alumni	10%
Quality of Faculty	Staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals	Award	20%
Quality of Faculty	Highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories	HiCi	20%
Research Output	Articles published in Nature and Science*	N&S	20%
Research Output	Articles in Science Citation Index-expanded and Social Science Citation Index	SCI	20%
Size of Institution	Academic performance with respect to the size of an institution	Size	10%
Total			100%

2. Definition of Indicators

Alumni. The total number of the alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals. Alumni are defined as those who obtain bachelor, Master's or doctoral degrees from the institution. Different weights are set according to the periods of obtaining degrees. The weight is 100% for alumni obtaining degrees in 1991-2000, 90% for alumni obtaining degrees in 1981-1990, 80% for alumni obtaining degrees in 1971-1980, and so on, and finally 10% for alumni obtaining degrees in 1901-1910. If a person obtains more than one degrees from an institution, the institution is considered once only.

Award. The total number of the staff of an institution winning Nobel prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine and economics and Fields Medal in Mathematics. Staff is defined as those who work at an institution at the time of winning the prize. Different weights are set according to the periods of winning the prizes. The weight is 100% for winners in 2001-2003, 90% for winners in 1991-2000, 80% for winners in 1981-1990, 70% for winners in 1971-1980, and so on, and finally 10% for winners in 1911-1920. If a winner is affiliated with more than one institution, each institution is assigned the reciprocal of the number of institutions. For Nobel prizes, if a prize is shared by more than one person, weights are set for winners according to their proportion of the prize.

HiCi. The number of highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories in life sciences, medicine, physical sciences, engineering and social sciences. These individuals are the most highly cited within each category for the period of 1981-1999. The definition of categories and detailed procedures can be found at the website of Institute of Scientific Information.
N&S. The number of articles published in Nature and Science between 1999 and 2003. To distinguish the order of author affiliation, a weight of 100% is assigned for corresponding author affiliation, 50% for first author affiliation (second author affiliation if the first author affiliation is the same as corresponding author affiliation), 25% for the next author affiliation, and 10% for other author affiliations. Only publications of article type are considered.

SCI. Total number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index-expanded and Social Science Citation Index in 2003. Only publications of article type are considered.

Size. The total scores of the above five indicators divided by the number of full-time equivalent academic staff. If the number of academic staff for institutions of a country cannot be obtained, the total scores of the above five indicators is used. For ranking - 2004, the number of full-time equivalent academic staff are obtained for institutions in USA, China (mainland), Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, and Belgium etc.

4. List of Abbreviations

Abbreviations used in the names of institutions are as follows:

Agr - Agriculture
Chem - Chemistry
China-hk - China - Hong Kong
China-tw - China-Taiwan
Coll - College
Fed - Federal
Inst - Institute
Med - Medicine
Natl or Nacl - National
Phys - Physics
Sch - School
Sci - Science
Tech - Technology
Univ - University
Other abbreviations used are as follows:
HiCi - Highly cited researchers
N&S - Nature and Science
SCI - Science Citation Index-expanded and Social Science Citation Index

5. Acknowledgements

We (Professor Nian Cai LIU, Mr. Ying CHENG, Ms Li LIU ) would like to express our gratitude for those who have provided us with the number of academic staff and other useful information. We thank all of you who have made thoughtful comments and suggestions.

The help of graduate students Ms Yuan LU, Mr. Chao LI, Mr. Jiacun ZHANG, and Ms Xiuzhen WANG in collecting information on Nobel laureates is also acknowledged.

6. Contacts

If you have any comments or suggestions, please email ranking@sjtu.edu.cn

If you could provide us statistical information on the number of academic staff of institutions in your country, we would very much appreciate.

Top 500 world Universities