The QS World University Rankings by Subject ranks the world’s top universities in individual subject areas, covering 54 subjects in 5 broad areas: Arts & Humanities, Engineering & Technology, Life Sciences & Medicinie, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences & Management.  Each of the subject rankings is compiled using five components which are combined to produce the results for each of the subject rankings, with weightings adapted for each discipline.

ACADEMIC REPUTATION 

Drawing on responses from over 130,000 academics, respondents are asked to list up to 10 domestic and 30 international institutions which they consider to be excellent for research in the given area. The results of the survey are then filtered according to the narrow area of expertise identified by respondents. 

EMPLOYER REPUTATION

The employer reputation indicator draws from the survey responses of more than 75,000 graduate employers worldwide. Employers are asked to identify up to 10 domestic and 30 international institutions they consider excellent for the recruitment of graduates. They are also asked to identify the disciplines from which they prefer to recruit.  

RESEARCH CITATIONS PER PAPER 

QS World University Rankings by Subject measures citations per paper, rather than citations per faculty member. This is due to the impracticality of reliably gathering faculty numbers broken down by discipline for each institution. All citations data is sourced from Elsevier Scopus. A minimum publication threshold is set for each subject to avoid potential anomalies stemming from small numbers of highly cited papers. Both the minimum publications threshold and the weighting applied to the citations indicator are adapted in order to best reflect prevalent publication and citation patterns in a given discipline. 

H-INDEX 

The H-index is a way of measuring both the productivity and impact of an academic or department at a university. The index is based on the set of the academic’s most cited papers and the number of citations they have received in other publications.  

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH NETWORK (BY BROAD FACULTY AREA)   

The IRN Index reflects the ability of institutions to diversify the geography of their international research network by establishing sustainable research partnerships with other higher education institutions.