7. By Robert Morse and Melinda Foster Oct. 27, 2014 | 9:38 p.m. EDT + More
In addition to rankings of the world's top 500 universities overall and by region and country, the inaugural
U.S. News Best Global Universities rankings include an examination of the leaders in key academic
subject areas. U.S. News used a separate methodology to publish the top 100 global universities
in 21 subject areas. The subject rankings are powered by Thomson Reuters InCitesTM
research analytics
solutions.
These subject-specific rankings which are not of academic majors, departments or specific schools at
universities, such as business schools or medical schools are based on academic research
performance in those subjects. We have used various bibliometric measures, including publications and
citations, as well as indicators for global and regional reputation in that specific subject.
Ranking Indicators
The bibliometric indicators are based on data from the Web of ScienceTM
for the five-year period from
2008 to 2012. The Web of ScienceTM
is a Web-based research platform that covers more than 12,000
of the most influential and authoritative scholarly journals worldwide in the sciences, social sciences, and
arts and humanities. The 21 subject fields used in the analysis came from subject schema in Thomson
Reuters' InCitesTM
, which uses the content and citation indicators from the Web of ScienceTM
.
The first step in producing the subject rankings was to create the universe of universities to determine
the top 100 in each field. 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.
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.
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1 of 4 2014/11/01 10:50 .
8. The next step was to calculate the 21 separate subject rankings using the eight ranking factors U.S.
News selected. Each indicator used in the subject rankings was based on bibliometric and global and
regional reputation data compiled for that specific subject. For example, for the Best Global Universities
for Clinical Medicine rankings, each of the eight rankings factors used in the calculations was based on
data and values for clinical medicine.
The subject rankings methodology differs from the one used to produce the overall Best Global
Universities rankings of the top 500 schools in a number of ways.
First, 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. The hard sciences
are the remaining 16 subject areas listed further below.
Second, school-level data on Ph.D.s awarded and number of faculty were not available at the subject
level and therefore not included in the subject rankings methodology.
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. In the case of mathematics, although a journal article is the main method of communication,
citations tend to take a longer time to accumulate than other fields and the overall citation rate to
mathematics papers tends to be quite low.
These reasons do not negate the use of citation analysis for research evaluation, but they decrease
confidence in the robustness of the results. Therefore, U.S. News lowered the weights assigned to these
citation indicators in the soft sciences to reflect the lower confidence.
The table below lists the weights and factors used to compute the 21 subject rankings, with related
indicators grouped together. For a detailed explanation of each ranking factor, please read "How U.S.
News Calculated the 2015 Best Global Universities Rankings."
Global research reputation 12.5% 12.5%
Regional research reputation 12.5% 12.5%
Publications 17.5% 15%
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2 of 4 2014/11/01 10:50 .
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Normalized citation impact 7.5% 10%
Total citations 12.5% 15%
Number of highly cited papers 17.5% 15%
Percentage of highly cited papers 10% 10%
International collaboration 10% 10%
TAGS: rankings, education, research, academics, globalization, world, international students, study
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11. Home Colleges Grad Schools High Schools Online Programs Community Colleges Global U
Education > Best Global Universities > Rankings
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100.0
Global Score
#1#1
88.9
Global Score
#2#2
88.0
Global Score
#3#3
85.1
Global Score
#4#4
83.6
Global Score
#5#5
83.3
Global Score
#6#6
Showing 1-10 of 500 schools sorted by Global Rank
Harvard University
United States Cambridge, MA
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
United States Cambridge, MA
University of California--Berkeley
United States Berkeley, CA
Stanford University
United States Stanford, CA
University of Oxford
United Kingdom Oxford
University of Cambridge
These institutions from the U.S. and nearly 50 other countries have been ranked
based on 10 indicators that measure their academic research performance and
their global and regional reputations. Students can use these rankings to explore
the higher education options that exist beyond their own countries' borders and to
compare key aspects of schools' research missions. These are the world's top
500 universities.
See the methodology »
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1 of 2 2014/11/01 11:25 .
12. 80.3
Global Score
#7#7
80.1
Global Score
#8#8
77.4
Global Score
#9#9
77.3
Global Score
#10#10
1 2 3 4 .. 50 Next »
United Kingdom Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
United States Pasadena, CA
University of California--Los
Angeles
United States Los Angeles, CA
University of Chicago
United States Chicago, IL
Columbia University
United States New York, NY
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34.8
Global Score
#360#360
Tie
33.7
Global Score
#377#377
Tie
28.5
Global Score
#472#472
-
Showing four schools sorted by Global Rank
University of Tehran
Iran Tehran
Sharif University of Technology
Iran Tehran
Isfahan University of Technology
Iran Isfahan
Amirkabir University of Technology
Iran Tehran
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1 of 2 2014/11/01 11:03 .
17. #690
#100
#178
#461
#52#52
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#76#76
#56#56
#100#100
53.8
#129
#49
#71
#156
#110
#110
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Best Global Universities in Asia
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#132
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21. #589
#55
#695
#196
#59#59
Tie
#58#58
65.6
#62
#35
#28
#217
#58
#78
#217
#41
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2 of 3 2014/11/01 11:03 .
24. #618
#51
#673
#176
#82#82
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2 of 2 2014/11/01 11:20 .
27. #176
#89#89
59.0
#108
#53
#30
#210
#62
#83
#210
#206
Computer Science international collaboration
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29. Home Colleges Grad Schools High Schools Online Programs Community Colleges Global U
Education > Best Global Universities > Rankings > Computer Science
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100.0
Subject Score
#1#1
95.1
Subject Score
#2#2
92.9
Subject Score
#3#3
92.0
Subject Score
#4#4
87.1
Subject Score
#5#5
Showing 1-10 of 100 schools sorted by Subject Rank
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
United States Cambridge, MA
#2 Best Global Universities
Harvard University
United States Cambridge, MA
#1 Best Global Universities
Stanford University
United States Stanford, CA
#4 Best Global Universities
University of California--Berkeley
United States Berkeley, CA
#3 Best Global Universities
Princeton University
United States Princeton, NJ
Computer science is the study of computers and their uses, and the field
comprises a wide range of subjects. They include software engineering and
design, artificial intelligence theory, programming languages, information systems
and information technology. These are the world's top universities for computer
science, which were ranked based on their reputation and research in the field.
See the methodology »
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Computer Science
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1 of 3 2014/11/01 11:22 .
30. 83.9
Subject Score
#6#6
82.3
Subject Score
#7#7
82.1
Subject Score
#8#8
80.3
Subject Score
#9#9
77.1
Subject Score
#10#10
1 2 3 4 .. 10 Next »
#13 Best Global Universities
University of Texas--Austin
United States Austin, TX
#30 Best Global Universities
Tsinghua University
China Beijing
#67 Best Global Universities
Nanyang Technological University
Singapore
#125 Best Global Universities
Hong Kong University of Science
and Technology
Hong Kong
#129 Best Global Universities
Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology Zurich
Switzerland Zurich
#26 Best Global Universities
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31. Home Colleges Grad Schools High Schools Online Programs Community Colleges Global U
Education > Best Global Universities > Rankings > Computer Science
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52.8
Subject Score
#80#80
Tie
52.7
Subject Score
#82#82
52.0
Subject Score
#83#83
51.8
Subject Score
#84#84
51.6
Subject Score
#85#85
Tie
Showing 81-90 of 100 schools sorted by Subject Rank
Polytechnic University of Milan
Italy Milan
#352 Best Global Universities
Humboldt University of Berlin
Germany Berlin
#77 Best Global Universities
Rice University
United States Houston, TX
#89 Best Global Universities
Northwestern University
United States Evanston, IL
#25 Best Global Universities
Royal Institute of Technology
Sweden Stockholm
Computer science is the study of computers and their uses, and the field
comprises a wide range of subjects. They include software engineering and
design, artificial intelligence theory, programming languages, information systems
and information technology. These are the world's top universities for computer
science, which were ranked based on their reputation and research in the field.
See the methodology »
Select region
Select country
Computer Science
Global Rankings Asia Australia/New Zealand Europe Latin America Search: School nam
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1 of 3 2014/11/01 10:48 .
32. 51.6
Subject Score
#85#85
Tie
51.6
Subject Score
#85#85
Tie
51.5
Subject Score
#88#88
Tie
51.5
Subject Score
#88#88
Tie
51.4
Subject Score
#90#90
« Previous 1 .. 8 9 10 Next »
#197 Best Global Universities
Simon Fraser University
Canada Burnaby, British Columbia, BC
#287 Best Global Universities
University of New South Wales
Australia Kensington, NSW
#94 Best Global Universities
King's College London
United Kingdom London
#61 Best Global Universities
Korea University
South Korea Seoul
#157 Best Global Universities
Amirkabir University of
Technology
Iran Tehran
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34. Home Colleges Grad Schools High Schools Online Programs Community Colleges Glob
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SearchSearch
55.6
Subject Score
#68#68
54.1
Subject Score
#72#72
Tie
53.4
Subject Score
#77#77
Tie
53.3
Subject Score
#79#79
51.5
Subject Score
#88#88
Tie
51.4
Subject Score
#90#90
51.3
Subject Score
#91#91
Tie
Showing 21-30 of 30 schools sorted by Subject Rank
National Chiao Tung University
Taiwan Hsinchu
#369 – Best Global Universities
University of Science and
Technology of China
China Hefei, Anhui
#143 – Best Global Universities
Peking University
China Beijing
#39 – Best Global Universities
Beijing University Posts and
Telecommunications
China Beijing
Korea University
South Korea Seoul
#157 – Best Global Universities
Amirkabir University of
Technology
Iran Tehran
Harbin Institute of Technology
China Harbin
Asia
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Computer Science
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35. 50.7
Subject Score
#95#95
Tie
49.8
Subject Score
#99#99
49.5
Subject Score
#100#100
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#339 – Best Global Universities
University of Electronic Science
and Technology of China
China Chengdu
Xi'an Jiaotong University
China Xi'an, Shaanxi
#352 – Best Global Universities
Yonsei University
South Korea Seoul
#223 – Best Global Universities
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