More problems With Method

Another problem with the peer review section of the THES-QS World University Rankings is that it is extremely biased against certain countries and biased in favour of certain others. Here is an incomplete list of countries where respondents to the peer review survey are located and the number of respondents.

USA 532
UK 378
India 256
Australia 191
Canada 153
Malaysia 112
Germany 103
Indonesia 93
Singapore 92
China 76
Japan 53
France 56
Japan 53
Mexico 51
Thailand 37
Israel 36
Iran 31
Taiwan 29
South Korea 27
HongKong 25
New Zealand 25
Pakistan 23
Finland 23
Nigeria 20


How far does the above list reflect the distribution of research expertise throughout the world? Here is a list of the same countries with the number of academics listed in Thomson ISI Highly Cited Researchers.


USA 3,825
UK 439
India 11
Australia 105
Canada 172
Malaysia 0
Germany 241
Indonesia 0
Singapore 4
China (excluding Hong Kong) 4
Japan 53
France 56
Japan 246
Mexico 3
Thailand 0
Israel 47
Iran 1
Taiwan 9
South Korea 3
HongKong 14
New Zealand 17
Pakistan 1
Finland 15
Nigeria 0


The number of highly cited scholars is not a perfect measure of research activity -- for one thing, some disciplines cite more than others -- but it does give us a broad picture of the research expertise of different countries.

The peer review is outrageously biased against the United States, extremely biased against Japan and very biased against Canada, Israel, European countries like France, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.


On the other hand, there is a strong bias towards China (less so Taiwan and Hong Kong), India Southeast Asia and Australia.

Now we now why Cambridge does so much better in the peer review than Harvard despite an inferior research record, why Peking university is apparantly among the best in the world, why there are so many Australian universities in the top 200 and why the world 's academics supposedly cite Japanese researchers copiously but cannot bring themselves to vote for them in the peer review .