Research Analytics

Boosting University Productivity and Competitiveness through Scientometrics

Francisco J. Cantu-Ortiz

• Publisher: Auerbach Publications
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351651943
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Regierung & Wirtschaft

The growth of machines and users of the Internet has led to the proliferation of all sorts of data concerning individuals, institutions, companies, governments, universities, and all kinds of known objects and events happening everywhere in daily life. Scientific knowledge is not an exception to the data boom. The phenomenon of data growth in science pushes forth as the number of scientific papers published doubles every 9–15 years, and the need for methods and tools to understand what is reported in scientific literature becomes evident.

As the number of academicians and innovators swells, so do the number of publications of all types, yielding outlets of documents and depots of authors and institutions that need to be found in Bibliometric databases. These databases are dug into and treated to hand over metrics of research performance by means of Scientometrics that analyze the toil of individuals, institutions, journals, countries, and even regions of the world.

The objective of this book is to assist students, professors, university managers, government, industry, and stakeholders in general, understand which are the main Bibliometric databases, what are the key research indicators, and who are the main players in university rankings and the methodologies and approaches that they employ in producing ranking tables.

The book is divided into two sections. The first looks at Scientometric databases, including Scopus and Google Scholar as well as institutional repositories. The second section examines the application of Scientometrics to world-class universities and the role that Scientometrics can play in competition among them. It looks at university rankings and the methodologies used to create these rankings. Individual chapters examine specific rankings that include:

• QS World University
• Scimago Institutions
• Webometrics
• U-Multirank
• U.S. News & World Report

The book concludes with a discussion of university performance in the age of research analytics.

IIApplication of Scientometrics to University Competitiveness and World-Class Universities

6Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU): Methodologies and Trends

Yan Wu and Nian Cai Liu

Graduate School of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Min Hang, Shanghai, China

6.1Introduction

6.1.1ARWU: Born for the Chinese Dream

6.1.2Drawing Global Attention

6.2Methodologies and Impacts

6.2.1Methodologies

6.2.2Features

6.2.3Impact

6.3Changes and Trends of National and Regional Performance in ARWU

6.3.1Performance of Countries and Regions in ARWU 2016

6.3.2Performance Trends of Selected Countries and Regions from 2004 to 2016

6.3.3Performance Changes of Countries from 2004 to 2016

6.4Changes and Trends of Institutional Performance in ARWU

6.4.1Statistics on the Numbers of Institutions in ARWU from 2004 to 2016

6.4.2Institutions with Great Improvements in ARWU from 2004 to 2016

6.4.3Institutions with Major Declines in ARWU from 2004 to 2016

6.5Concluding Remarks

6.5.1Future of ARWU

6.5.2New Efforts

6.5.3Cautions

Acknowledgments

References

6.1Introduction

6.1.1ARWU: Born for the Chinese Dream

Achieving the Chinese nation’s bright prospect on the road to revival is the dream for many generations. World-class universities are essential in developing a nation’s competitiveness in the global knowledge economy. So, the Chinese government initiated the strategic policy of building world-class universities, which resulted in the 985 Project. In the first phase, nine top Chinese universities were selected to build world-class universities by the 985 Project, which are Peking University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), Fudan University, Zhejiang University, Nanjing University, University of Science and Technology of China, Xi’an Jiao Tong University, and Harbin Institute of Technology. Right after its selection, SJTU assigned our department, the Office of Strategic Planning of the university, to be responsible for making the strategic plan.

During the process, there were many questions asked by ourselves. For example, what is the definition of a world-class university? How many world-class universities should there be all over the world? What are the positions of top Chinese universities in the world higher education system? How can top Chinese universities reduce their gap with world-class universities? In order to answer these questions, we started to benchmark top Chinese universities with world-class universities. To answer these questions, we not only did a qualitative study but also a quantitative comparison. From 1999 to 2001, we worked on the project of benchmarking top Chinese universities with four groups of U.S. universities, from the very top to the less-known research universities, according to a wide spectrum of indicators of academic or research performance. The results of these comparisons and analyses were used in the planning process, including that top Chinese universities were estimated to be approximately in the position of 200 to 300 in the world. Eventually, a consultation report was provided to the Ministry of Education of China and reviewed favorably by the government officials.

The internationalization of higher education worldwide was growing rapidly in the early twenty-first century. Universities, governments, and other stakeholders not only in China but also in the rest of the world were interested in the quantitative comparison of world universities. So, we decided to make a real ranking of global universities. After another 2 years of benchmarking work, the first ARWU ranking was released in 2003 on the website http://www.shanghairanking.com/ and became the first multi-indicator ranking of global universities. Since then, it has been updated and published annually. By now, ARWU has been providing trustworthy performance information on universities in different countries for 14 years.

6.1.2Drawing Global Attention

Ever since its publication, ARWU has attracted a great deal of attention from universities, governments, and public media worldwide. The EU Research Headlines reported ARWU that “the universities were carefully evaluated using several indicators of research performance” (European Commission, 2003). As Figure 6.1 indicates, about one-fourth of the major media in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and other countries reported ARWU rankings in 2014.

Figure 6.1The number of major media that reported ARWU rankings world...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Editor
• Author
• Section I Scientometric Databases
• Section II Application of Scientometrics to University Competitiveness and World-Class Universities
• Index