University Ranking Challenge: Your starter for 5,154

Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, has indicated that the publication of a paper from the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider project is a challenge for rankers.

The paper in question has a total of 5,154 authors, if that is the right word, with sole or primary affiliation to 344 institutions. Of those authors 104 have a secondary affiliation. One is deceased. Under THE's current methodology every institution contributing to the paper will get credit for all the citations that the paper will receive, which is very likely to run into the thousands.

For the elite universities  participating in these projects a few thousand citations will make little or no difference. But for for a small specialised institution or a large one that does little research, those citations spread out over a few hundred papers could make a big difference.

In last year's rankings places like Florida Institute of Technology, Universite Marrakesh Cadi Ayyad, Morroco, Federico Santa Maria Technical University, Chile, Bogazici University, Turkey, got implausibly high scores for citations that were were well ahead of those for the other criteria.

The paper in question does set a record for the number of contributors although the challenge is not particularly new.

At a seminar in Moscow earlier this year, Baty suggested that THE, now independent of Thomson Reuters, was considering using fractionated counting, dividing all the citations among the contributing institutions.

This would be an excellent idea and should be technically quite feasible since CWTS at Leiden University use it as their default option.

But there would be a a price to pay. The current methodology allows THE to boast that it has found a way of uncovering hitherto unnoticed pockets of excellence. It is also a selling point in THE's imperial designs of expanding into regions where there has so far been little interest in ranking, Russia, the Middle East, Africa, the BRICS. A few universities in those regions could make a splash in the rankings if they recruited, even as an adjunct, a researcher working on the LHC project.

It would be most welcome if THE does start using fractionated counting in its citation indication. Also welcome would be some other changes: not counting self-citation, reducing the weighting for the indicator, including several different methods of evaluating research impact or quality, and, especially important, getting rid of the "regional modification" that awards a bonus for being located in a low scoring country.

An Experiment Using LinkedIn Data to Rank Arab Universities

University World News recently published an article by Rahul Choudaha suggesting that LinkedIn is the future of global rankings. At the moment that sounds a bit exaggerated and LinkedIn in its present form may be gone in a decade but he could be on to something.

Leaving Europe, North America and East Asia aside, the reliability of institutional data is very low and that makes serious evaluation of graduate outcomes, staff quality, income, teaching resources and so on extremely difficult.

This problem is especially acute for the Middle East and North Africa region where there appears to be a big demand for university rankings but little accurate information. The consequence has been some highly implausible results in the rankings attempted so far. Last year THE produced a "snapshot"of a ranking indicator which put Texas A&M Qatar as the top university for research impact.and QS's pilot rankings have the American University of Sharjah in joint first place for academic reputation, Al-Nahrain University top for faculty student ratio and Khalifa University top for papers per faculty.

So, here is a list of Arab universities ordered by the number of students or professionals putting them on the Decision Board, indicating an interest in attending Counting was done on the 14th of May.

If this approximates to reputation among students and the public then it seems that Egyptian universities have been undervalued n previous ranking exercises.

Rank	University	Country	Interested in attending
1	Helwan University	Egypt	422
2	American University in Cairo	Egypt	394
3	Arab Academy of Science, Technology and Maritime Transport	Egypt	359
4	Cairo University	Egypt	353
5	Ain Shams University	Egypt	245
6	Alexandria University	Egypt	230
7	King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals	Saudi Arabia	211
8	American University of Beirut	Lebanon	193
9	École Nationale Polytechnique d'Alger	Algeria	184
10	King Saud University	Saudi Arabia	138
11	Lebanese American University	Lebanon	133
12	American University in Dubai	UAE	131
13	Qatar University	Qatar	102
14	American University of Sharjah	UAE	91
15	King Abdullah University of Science and Technology	Saudi Arabia	85
16=	Al Azhar University	Egypt	78
16=	University of Dubai	UAE	78
18	Damascus University	Syria	73
19	University of Dammam	Saudi Arabia	70
20=	Mansoura Univerdity	Egypt	68
20=	Houari Boumediene University of Science and Technology	Algeria	68
22	UAE University	UAE	62
23	Higher Colleges of Technology	UAE	58
24=	Tanta University	Egypt	51
24=	German University in Cairo	Egypt	51
26	Zagazig University	Egypt	50
27=	Suez Canal University	Egypt	43
27=	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia	43
27=	Umm Al-Qura University	Saudi Arabia	43
30=	Abu Dhabi UNiversity	UAE	33
30=	Ajman University of Science & Technology	UAE	33
32	Assiut Universit	Egypt	32
33	Université Mentouri de Constantine	Algeria	27
34	Université Libanaise	Lebanon	26
35	Al-Imam Mohamed Ibn Saud Islamic University	Saudi Arabia	23
36	Université Saad Dahlab Blida	Algeria	22
37	Prince Sultan University	Saudi Arabia	21
38=	King Faisal University	Saudi Arabia	20
38=	Université Mouloud Mammeri de Tizi Ouzo	Algeria	20
40	Université Badji Mokhtar de Annaba	Algeria	19
41	Khalifa University	UAE	19
42=	Université de Batna	Algeria	18
42=	Université Cadi Ayyad Marrakech	Morocco	18
44=	King Khalid University	Saudi Arabia	17
44=	Sanaa University	Yemen	17
46	University of Bejaia	Jordan	16
47=	Zayed University	UAE	14
47=	Université Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah	Morocco	14
49=	Masdar Intiute of Science and Technology	UAE	13
49=	Université d'Oran	Algeria	13
51=	Yarmouk University	Jordan	12
51=	Universite de Tunis El Manar	Tunisia	12
53=	Texas A&M Qatar	Qater	11
53=	University of Sharjah	UAE	11
53=	Minia University	Egypt	11
53=	University of Tunis	Tunisia	11
53=	Universite de Monastir	Tunisia	11
58=	University of Jordan	Jordan	10
58=	Benha University	Egypt	10
58=	University of Bahrain	Bahrain	10
61	Taif University	Saudi Arabia	0
62	Kuwait University	Kuwait	0
63	University of Baghdad	Iraq	0
64	University of Khartoum	Sudan	0
65	Jordan University of Science and Technology	Jordan	0
66	Mosul University	Iraq	0
67	Qassim University	Saudi Arabia	0
68	Taibah University	Saudi Arabia	0
69	Hashemite University	Jordan	0
70	Université Abou Bekr Belkaid Tlemcen	Algeria	0
71	Al Balqa Applied University	Algeria	0
72	Babylon University	Iraq	0
73	South Valley University	Egypt	0
74	Meoufia University	Egypt	0
75	Fayoum University	Egypt	0
76	Sohag University	Egypt	0
77	Beni-Suef University	Egypt	0
78	Jazan University	Saudi Arabia	0
79	Universite de Sfax	Tunisia	0
80	Al Nahrain University	Iraq	0
81	University of Basrah	Iraq	0
82	King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences	Saudi Arabia	0
83	Université Mohammed V Agdal	Morocco	0
84	Alfaisal University	Saudi Arabia	0
85	Arabian Gulf University	Bahrain	0
86=	Petroleum Institute Abu Dhabi	UAE	0
86=	National Engineering School of Sfax	Tunisia	0
88	Mutah University	Jordan	0
89	Kafrelsheikh University	Egypt	0
90	Université de Carthage (7 de Novembre)	Tunisia	0
91	University of Balamand	Lebanon	0
92	Beirut Arab University	Lebanon	0
93	Université Hassan II Mohammadia	Morocco	0
94	Universite de Sousse	Tunisia	0
95	Université Abdelmalek Essaadi	Morocco	0
96	Petra University	Jordan	0
97	Djillali Liabes University	Algeria	0
98	Université Ferhat Abbas Setif	Algeria	0
99	Princess Sumaya University for Technology	Jordan	0
100	Université de la Manouba	Tunisia	0
101	Université Ibn Tofail Kénitra	Morocco	0
102	Université Saint Joseph de Beyrouth	Lebanon	0
103	Université de Gabes	Tunisia	0
104	Université Mohammed Premier Oujda	Morocco	0
105	Mohamed Boudiaf University of Science and Technology	Algeria	0
106	Sultan Qaboos University	Oman	0

How to improve your total Contribution in the academic caldener.

I have received several invitations over the last few months to let a team of consultants write up my research and get me into an ISI or Scopus journal. The most recent was from something called Prime Journal Consultants. It is hard to believe that anyone could be so naive as to pay money to someone who writes so badly but who knows? Maybe Chris Olsen has got a doctorate now.

Or maybe standards at Scopus and Thomson Reuters journals are not what they used to be.

Anyway, here is the first part of the message.

"The Most valuable part of your research is the data and study that you have already conducted, its time now to use the study and with our expert assistance create a complete research paper out of it and get it published to the highest impact factor ISI or Scopus Indexed journals to earn Recognition and Promotion.

The Contribution of Research Article Publishing Towards your Promotion
Publication is both a measure of a scholar’s knowledge and also a benchmark for academic success. The minimum percentage for promotion in terms of Research Publication is at least 35-40% of your total Contribution in the academic caldener.


Common Misconception About ISI publishing -Book A Dedicated Consultant Today
ISI Publishing is a time consuming process, The Genuine ISI journals would take time after getting you through rigorous revisions and edits. That is where our Dedicated Consultants Come in to assist you take you through theentire steps to get you an ISI acceptance."

The March of Pseudoscience Stumbles a BIt

Pseudoscience continues to thrive in the West. Although -- I think -- no longer offered by universities, homeopathy is still viewed with favour by many in the British establishment, including the Prince of Wales, and has received official recognition in Canada.

Meanwhile in Malaysia Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) has produced an anti-hysteria kit consisting of things like chopsticks,  lime, salt, vinegar and pepper spray, which will repel evil spirits. The kit sells for Ringgit 8,750, which includes training and technical support

The Malaysian religious authorities have been more sceptical than the British royal family and treated the kits with derision. UMP has replied by claiming the kit was based on scientific research, although it has not said where the research was published