Bibliometrics

It is often useful to evaluate and compare different research institutes and universities. For example, when looking for research partners, you can look into the background of the organisation and its status.

There are many different ways to evaluate and compare research institutes and universities. For example, the following is a list of some of the major international rankings, all freely available:

• Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)
  Published by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, using Web of Science data plus other factors, for example, winners of Nobel Prize and Fields Medals. More than 1200 universities are ranked each year and the best 500 are published.
• CWS Leiden Ranking
  Produced by Leiden University, using Web of Science data. Includes over 800 universities worldwide.
• QS World University Rankings
  More than 900 universities from over 80 countries are ranked, by assessing university performance across four areas: research, teaching, employability, and internationalisation. Based on data from Scopus and from surveys.
• Scimago Institutions Rankings
  Developed by Scimago Lab, using data from Scopus. Ranks over 5000 institutions.
• THE World University Rankings
  Produced by the THE (Times Higher Education), using Scopus and survey data. Judges research-intensive universities across "their core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook."
• U-Multirank
  A global ranking whose purpose is to offer a comprehensive picture of the diversity of universities. Developed and implemented by an independent consortium that consists of European higher education institutions and supported by the European Commission. The 2019 ranking features more than 1,700 universities from some 100 countries.
• Webometrics Ranking of World Universities
  By the Cybermetrics Lab of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Based on web presence and impact, using link analysis, not citation analysis. It ranks more than 20,000 universities worldwide.

See Hanken's Accreditations and rankings.

The publishing activity of institutions can be assessed from many different perspectives, with dfifferent databases having a number of different tools and features. For example, you can search for an institution's publication activity in Scopus in its "Affiliation search":

The results show the total numbers of publications and authors affiliated to the searched institution, as well as numbers of documents by subject areas, collaborating affiliations, and documents by source (for example, in each journal).

Note that the results any database gives you are, however, always based on the content of this particular database. It is wise to use as many databases as possible.

SciVal uses Scopus content from 1996 onwards and offers access to the research performance of 4,600 research institutions and 220 countries worldwide. It is a useful tool to evaluate and benchmark research and research collaboration of different entities such as a researcher, research group, research institution or country. 

For more information see the SciVal Research Metrics Guidebook (free to download) or view the SciVal online manual (login is required).