ScholarGPS provides the first quantitative institutional rankings in all Fields ("Overall"), in each of 14 broad Fields (such as Medicine, Engineering, or Humanities), in 177 Disciplines (such as Surgery, Computer Science, or History), as well as in over 350,000 unique Specialties (such as Cancer, Artificial Intelligence, or Ethics). ScholarGPS institutional rankings are developed based on active scholars on both a Lifetime basis ("Lifetime") and on the basis of scholarly work produced over a Five Year interval (in this case, January 2017-December 2021). See Ranking Terminology and Methodology for details of the institution ranking methodology. Access to both academic and non-academic institutional and program rankings is now available for free at ScholarGPS Institutional Rankings.
One significant insight obtained from the institutional rankings of over 5,600 institutions is the notable shift in rankings across various categories relative to both time intervals (Lifetime/Five Years).
Below, we identify the Top 20 academic institutions in the world relative to their Overall performance (all Fields), and for the two Fields having the largest numbers of scholars i.e., (i) Medicine and (ii) Engineering & Computer Science. By generating and comparing lists for both the Top 20 Lifetime and Top 20 Five Year academic institutions, we can observe how the rankings have changed relative to these two time intervals, and how the extent of the changes can vary from Field-to-Field.
The Top 20 institutions for All Fields (Overall) are shown in Fig. 1. Harvard University and Stanford University occupy the top two positions in both the Lifetime and Five Year lists. Most of the institutions identified in the figure are ranked among the Top 20 in both lists. Five U.S. institutions which are in the Top 20 Lifetime list do not appear in the Top 20 Five Year list. Where we might have expected to see these five institutions in the Five Year list, we see instead the University of British Columbia, the University of Melbourne, and Imperial College (London), none of whom make the Top 20 Lifetime list. But more impressive is the ascent of two Chinese universities, Tsinghua University (LIfetime rank: 128) and Zhejiang University (Lifetime rank: 190) into the Top 20 Five Year list at Five Year ranks of 8 and 19, respectively.
Fig. 1. Top 20 academic institutions for All Fields (Overall) and their rankings on Lifetime [R∞] and Five Year [R5] bases. Institutions that appear in the Top 20 on both lists and have ascended in rank, R5 < R∞, are identified with red underlines. In contrast, Top 20 institutions that have dropped in the rankings with R5 > R∞ ≥ 21 have green underlines. Institutions that have fallen from the Top 20 in the Five Years, R5 ≥ 21, have blue underlines. Institutions that have entered the Top 20 in the Five Years, R∞ ≥ 21, have purple underlines. Institutions with R5 = R∞ are shown with brown underlines.
Academic institutions ranked in the Top 20 (Lifetime and/or Five Year) in the Field of Medicine are shown in Fig. 2. For the most part, institutions have simply changed positions within the two Top 20 lists with the exceptions of (i) Johns Hopkins University and New York University that hold the same position in both lists, (ii) Stanford University which moved up to the top rank in the Five Year list from the 4th Lifetime position, and Harvard University, which moved down to 3rd in the Five Year list from the top position in the Lifetime list, (iii) King's College London that appears in the Top 20 Five Year list from a lower Lifetime ranking and (iv) the University of California, Los Angeles that appears in the Top 20 Lifetime list but not in the Top 20 Five Year list. Nonetheless, it is evident that U.S. institutions dominate both the Top 20 Lifetime and Five Year rankings in the Field of Medicine.
Fig. 2. Top 20 academic institutions in Medicine and their rankings on Lifetime [R∞] and Five Year [R5] bases. Institutions that appear in the Top 20 on both lists and have ascended in rank, R5 < R∞, are shown with red underlines. In contrast, Top 20 institutions that have dropped in the rankings with R5 > R∞ ≥ 21 have green underlines. The institution that has fallen from the Top 20 in the Five Years, R5 ≥ 21, has a blue underline. The institution that has entered the Top 20 in the Five Years, R∞ ≥ 21, has a purple underline. Institutions with R5 = R∞ are shown with brown underlines.
In contrast to the modest reordering of institutional rankings over the Lifetime and Five Year ranking intervals associated with All Fields (Fig. 1) and with Medicine (Fig. 2), it is apparent that the Top 20 rankings in Engineering & Computer Science, shown in Fig. 3, demonstrate a profound change relative to these ranking periods. MIT and Stanford University shift from their Lifetime first and second place positions to second and twelfth, respectively, in the Five Year rankings. Meanwhile, Tsinghua University ascended to the top spot in the Five Year rankings from its Lifetime position at 37th. Only 6 institutions appear in both the Lifetime and Five Year lists. Fourteen institutions, including 12 from the U.S. and one each from Canada and Israel, appear in the Top 20 Lifetime list but (perhaps surprisingly) do not appear in the Top 20 Five Year list. On the other hand, of the 14 institutions which are not in the Top 20 Lifetime list but are in the Top 20 Five Year list, 13 are from China and Hong Kong, and one is Australian.
Fig. 3. Top 20 academic institutions in Engineering & Computer Science and their rankings on Lifetime [R∞] and Five Year [R5] bases. Institutions that are in the Top 20 on both lists and have ascended in rank, R5 < R∞, are shown with red underlines. In contrast, Top 20 institutions with R5 > R∞ ≥ 21 have green underlines. Institutions that have fallen from the Top 20 in the Five Years, R5 ≥ 21, have blue underlines. Institutions that have entered the Top 20 in the Five Years, R∞ ≥ 21, have purple underlines.
Highly Ranked Scholars™ (HRS) by ScholarGPS are exceptional researchers and the most productive authors (by number of publications) whose works are of profound impact (by total citations) and of the utmost quality (h-index). HRS are in the top 0.05 percent of all scholars evaluated at the levels of all Fields ("Overall"), or across 14 broad Fields (such as Medicine, Engineering, or Humanities), 177 Disciplines (such as Surgery, Computer Science, or History), or even over 350,000 highly focused Specialties (such as Cancer, Artificial Intelligence, or Ethics) in which the scholars are active. See Ranking Terminology and Methodology for details of the scholar ranking methodology. ScholarGPS provides free access to all HRS in all levels by country/region among over 30 million scholars from over 55,000 institutions in over 200 countries via the link Highly Ranked Scholars™.
Here, we report the numbers of HRS in the top 10 countries/regions who are the most highly ranked over all Fields (Overall), or who are associated with the two Fields having the most scholars i.e., (i) Medicine and (ii) Engineering & Computer Science. We examine the number of HRS with respect to two kinds of time intervals: the interval spanning a scholar's Lifetime of work ("Lifetime"), and a scholar's output in the specific time period January 2017-December 2021 ("Five Year"). The HRS criteria described above is applied to the universe of scholars with respect to those time intervals to determine HRS status.
The 10 countries/regions that were found to have the largest numbers of HRS over all Fields (Overall) on either the Five Year or Lifetime basis are identified in Fig. 1. As is evident, the U.S. and Canada, along with various countries in Europe and Japan have fewer HRS over the Five Year interval than over the Lifetime interval, while China and Hong Kong, India, and Iran are among the top 10 countries with the most HRS (Lifetime) who also show large increases in their HRS numbers in the Five Year interval. Australia has little change in its number of HRS.
Fig. 1. Countries/regions with the largest numbers of Highly Ranked Scholars™ (Lifetime and Five Years) for All Fields (Overall). Numbers are shown for the top 10 countries/regions of either category (Five Years, N5, or Lifetime, N∞). Countries/regions are shown in order of decreasing N5 + N∞.
The same methodology shows trends associated with the specific Fields of Medicine and Engineering & Computer Science. As in the Overall case above, the analysis of the Field of Medicine (Fig. 2) reveals that the top-ranked U.S. has retained its lead over the second-ranked country in the Five Year interval, but by a reduced margin relative to the Lifetime lead. In general, the U.S. and Canada, several European countries, and Japan have experienced reductions in the numbers of HRS in Medicine. Italy and Spain have increased their numbers of HRS in Medicine. The strong performance of China in Medicine, as shown by the HRS data for the FIve Year interval, is evident.
Fig. 2. Countries/regions with the most Highly Ranked Scholars™ (Lifetime and Five Years) in Medicine. Numbers are shown for the top 10 countries/regions of either category (Five Years, N5, or Lifetime, N∞). Countries/regions are shown in order of decreasing N5 + N∞.
In contrast to the results for the Overall (all Fields) category (Fig. 1) and Medicine (Fig. 2) (categories where the U.S. has retained its lead in recent years), inspection of Fig. 3 shows that China has surpassed the U.S. in the numbers of HRS in Engineering & Computer Science in the Five Year interval. Significant recent decreases in numbers of HRS have also been experienced by Canada, Japan, and several European countries in the Five Year interval relative to the Lifetime interval. In contrast, India and Iran show increases in their numbers of HRS in the Five Year interval relative to the Lifetime interval. Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore exhibit the same behavior. The Five Year performance of Iran in Engineering and Computer Science (Fig. 3) is remarkable.
Fig. 3. Countries/regions with the most Highly Ranked Scholars™ (Lifetime and Five Years) in Engineering & Computer Science. Numbers are shown for the top 10 countries/regions of either category (Five Years, N5, or Lifetime, N∞). Countries/regions are shown in order of decreasing N5 + N∞.
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