In ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects institutions are ranked in 55 academic subjects across five broad areas: Natural sciences, Engineering, Life sciences, Medical sciences, and Social sciences. Different weights are allocated to the indicators for different subjects. The following nine indicators are used in the ranking:

International Academic Award Laureates (Laureate)

It refers to the number of full-time faculty members employed by an institution as of April 2024 who have received significant international academic awards within an Academic Subject. The significant awards in each subject are selected through ShanghaiRanking’s Academic Excellence Survey. 

Highly Cited Researchers (HCR)

This indicator considers faculty members at an institution who have demonstrated significant influence in their Academic Subjects, as selected by Clarivate. The Highly Cited Researchers list issued in January 2024 was used for calculating the HCR indicator in GRAS 2024. If a Highly Cited Researcher receives recognition in more than one Academic Subject, each subject is counted separately. Only the primary affiliations of Highly Cited Researchers are considered.

Chief Editors of International Academic Journals (Editor)

It measures the number of faculty members employed by an institution who currently serve as chief editors of international journals indexed by SCIE, SSCI and AHCI from 2021 Journal Citation Report (JCR) by Clarivate as of December 2023. The chief editors include Editor-in-Chief, Co-Editor, Deputy-Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor, Associate Editor, Executive Editor, etc. Different weights are set according to the positions and number of chief editors holding the same position. The weight for Editor-in-Chief and equivalent positions is 200%, and the weight for Deputy-Editor-in-Chief and equivalent positions is 100%.

International Academic Organization Leadership (Leadership)

It refers to the number of faculty members employed by an institution who currently hold leadership and senior executive positions in key international academic organizations as of April 2024. These positions include President, Vice President, Secretary General, Associate General Secretary, and other leadership roles within governing bodies such as executive committees, boards, or councils. The Key International Academic Organization in each subject are nominated through ShanghaiRanking’s Academic Excellence Survey. Different weights are set according to the positions and number of leaders holding the same positions. The weight for President and Secretary General is 200%, and the weight for Vice Presidents, Associate Secretary General and other leadership positions is 100%. If multiple leaders hold the same type of position within the same organization, the weight is equally assigned to them.

Top Journal Papers (TJ)

It is the number of papers published in Top Journals or Top Conferences within an Academic Subject by an institution during the period of 2019-2023. Top Journals and Top Conferences are nominated by distinguished scholars through ShanghaiRanking’s Academic Excellence Survey. In 2024, 170 top journals identified by the Survey are used in rankings of 46 Academic Subjects. In Computer Science Engineering, 26 selected top conferences are also taken into account this year. For the remaining 8 Academic Subjects, Q1 category journals that primarily belong to the respoctive Academic Subject are used as substitutes. Only publications classified as Article” are considered.

International Academic Awards (Award)

It refers to the total number of the staff of an institution winning a significant award in an Academic Subject since 1991. The significant awards in each subject are nominated through ShanghaiRanking’s Academic Excellence Survey. The weight is 100% for winners in 2021-2023, 75% for winners in 2010-2020, 50% for winners in 2000-2010, and 25% for winners in 1991-2000. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is selected for Biological Sciences, Human Biological Sciences, Clinical Medicine, and Pharmacy Pharmaceutical Sciences. Winners of this award are assigned to one or more subjects according to the topics of their recognized contributions. If a contribution belongs to more than one subject, the winner will be counted once for each relevant subject.

The number of influential journal publications (Q1)

It is an important measure of an institution’s research output in the corresponding subject. Q1 refers to the number of papers published by an institution in an Academic Subject within journals ranked in Q1 based on the Journal Impact Factor during the period of 2019-2023. Only publications classified as “Article” are considered. Data are collected from Web of Science and InCites.

Category Normalized Citation Impact (CNCI)

It is the ratio of the citations received by an institutions published papers to the average citations of papers in the same category, year, and type of journal publication within an Academic Subject during the period of 2019-2023. A CNCI value of 1 represents world-average performance. A CNCI below 1 indicates that the citation times of this group publications are lower than the average level, while a CNCI above 1 signifies that the paper’s citation performance exceeds the average level. Only publications classified as “Article” are considered. Data are collected from InCites.

International collaboration (IC)

It is an indicator used to evaluate the level of international collaboration in the respective subject between institutions. The ratio of the number of publications that have been found in at least two different countries in addresses of the authors to the total number of publications in the respective subject for an institution during the period of 2019-2023. Only publications classified as “Article” are considered. Data are collected from InCites.

Adaptive Weights. Different weights are allocated to the indicators for different subjects, depending on its specific research culture, publication rates or the citation of papers ratio.