The New Taiwan Rankings

The new Performance Ranking of Scientific papers for World Universities is out.

This is based on a variety of measures derived from Essential Science Indicators database. It is therefore more orientated towards quality than the THE-QS rankings which use the more comprehensive but less selective Scopus database.

These rankings may become more influential in the future so it might be worthwhile making a few comments. First, like nearly all rankings there is a bias towards the citation-heavy natural sciences. Second, it may be that the number of indicators, eight, is too many since some at least may simply be counting the same thing. Third, there is no attempt to measure anything other than research.

Still, the current rankings are important. Looking at the overall index, we find that Oxbridge and some of the Ivy League schools are definitely slipping, deprived of the support from the THE-QS academic survey and the aging or dead laureates of the Shanghai index. Cambridge is in 15th place, Yale 16th, Oxford 17th and Princeton 38th.

Here are the top five.

1. Harvard
2. Johns Hopkins
3. Stanford
4. University of Washington at Seattle
5. UCLA

I am wondering about the University of Washington, which is 16th in the Shanghai rankings and 59th in the THE-QS.