The CWTS Leiden Ranking is an annual global

university ranking College and university rankings order higher education institutions based on various criteria, with factors differing depending on the specific ranking system. These rankings can be conducted at the national or international level, assessing inst ...

based exclusively on bibliometric indicators. The rankings are compiled by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies ( Dutch: ''Centrum voor Wetenschap en Technologische Studies'', CWTS) at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. The

Clarivate Analytics Clarivate Plc is a British-American publicly traded analytics company that operates a collection of subscription-based services, in the areas of bibliometrics and scientometrics; business and market intelligence, and competitive profiling ...

bibliographic database

Web of Science The Web of Science (WoS; previously known as Web of Knowledge) is a paid-access platform that provides (typically via the internet) access to multiple databases that provide reference and citation data from academic journals, conference proceedi ...

is used as the source of the publication and citation data. The Leiden Ranking ranks universities worldwide by number of academic publications according to the volume and

citation impact Citation impact or citation rate is a measure of how many times an academic journal article or book or author is cited by other articles, books or authors. Citation counts are interpreted as measures of the impact or influence of academic work a ...

of the publications at those institutions. The rankings take into account differences in language,

discipline Discipline is the self-control that is gained by requiring that rules or orders be obeyed, and the ability to keep working at something that is difficult. Disciplinarians believe that such self-control is of the utmost importance and enforce a ...

and institutional size. Multiple ranking lists are released according to various bibliometric normalization and impact indicators, including the number of publications, citations per publication, and field-normalized impact per publication. In addition to citation impact, the Leiden Ranking also ranks universities by scientific collaboration, including collaboration with other institutions and collaboration with an industry partner. The first edition of the Leiden Ranking was produced in 2007. The 2014 rankings include 750 universities worldwide, which were selected based on the number of articles and reviews published by authors affiliated with those institutions in 2009–2012 in so-called "core" journals, a set of English-language journals with international scope and a "sufficiently large" number of references in the Web of Science database. According to the Netherlands Centre for Science and Technology Studies, the crown indicator is Indicator 4 (PP top 10%), and is the only one presented in university rankings by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation website (UniversityRankings.ch).

Results

As of 2023, Chinese universities dominate the rankings, with 16 out of the top 25 universities ranked being in China., while in previous years, the top was heavily dominated by American universities. In the 2014 rankings,

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a Private university, private Medical research, biomedical Research university, research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and pro ...

was first by citation impact, as measured by both mean citation score and mean normalized citation score, as well as by the proportion of papers belonging to the top 10% in their field. Notably, the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, and other

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

universities score much lower than in other university rankings, such as the

Times Higher Education World University Rankings The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', often referred to as the THE Rankings, is the annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarelli Symon ...

and

QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...

, which are based in part on reputational surveys among academics. When measuring by collaboration with other universities (the proportion of number of publications co-authored with other institutions), the top three spots were occupied by National Yang-Ming University and two other institutions from

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

in 2014, followed by universities from

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, the United Kingdom and a number of other European countries. King Abdulaziz University and King Saud University in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

led the list in 2014 when measured by international collaboration.

Indicators

The Leiden Ranking ranks universities by the following indicators:

Citation impact

* MCS – mean citation score. The average number of citations of the publications of a university. * MNCS – mean normalized citation score. The average number of citations of the publications of a university, normalized for field differences and publication year. For example, an MNCS value of 2 means that the publications of a university have been cited twice above world average. * PP(top 10%) – proportion of top 10% publications. The proportion of the publications of a university that belong to the top 10% most frequently cited, compared with other publications in the same field and in the same year.

Scientific collaboration

* PP(collab) – proportion of interinstitutionally collaborative publications. The proportion of the publications of a university that have been co-authored with one or more other organizations. * PP(int collab) – proportion of internationally collaborative publications. The proportion of the publications of a university that have been co-authored by two or more countries. * PP(UI collab) – proportion of collaborative publications with industry. The proportion of the publications of a university that have been co-authored with one or more industrial partners. * PP(<100 km) – proportion of short-distance collaborative publications. The proportion of the publications of a university with a geographical collaboration distance of less than 100 km. * PP(>1000 km) – proportion of long-distance collaborative publications. The proportion of the publications of a university with a geographical collaboration distance of more than 1000 km.

Criticism

In a 2010 article, Loet Leydesdorff criticized the method used by the Leiden Ranking to normalize citation impact by subject field. The mean normalized citation score (MNCS) indicator is based on the ISI subject category classification used in Web of Science, which was "not designed for the scientometric evaluation, but for the purpose of information retrieval". Also, normalizing at a higher aggregation level, rather than at the level of individual publications, gives more weight to older publications, particularly reviews, and to publications in fields where citation levels are traditionally higher.Andrejs Rauhvargers
''Global University Rankings And Their Impact''
, European University Association, 2011

References

External links

Website of the CWTS Leiden Ranking
{{University ranking systems University and college rankings Bibliometrics Leiden University