General information on ranking

Name of the ranking ShanghaiRanking's Academic Ranking of World Universities
Geographical scope Global
Name of person in charge of ranking Ying Cheng
E-mail of person in charge of ranking ycheng@shanghairanking.com
Website of the ranking http://www.shanghairanking.com/index.html
Publication frequency annual
First year of publication 2003
Most recent year of publication 2016
Date of last update 2016-11-14
Ranking organization ShanghaiRanking Consultancy
Website of the methodology http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU-Methodology-2016.html
Methodology

ARWU uses six objective indicators to rank world universities, including the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, number of highly cited researchers selected by Thomson Reuters, number of articles published in journals of Nature and Science, number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index - Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, and per capita performance of a university. More than 1200 universities are actually ranked by ARWU every year and the best 500 are published.

Additional information

  • Type of publication: internet, print - special publication
  • Internet users access to ranking: open access
  • Language of publication: English, Chinese
  • Main target groups: higher education institutions, policymakers, governments and funding agencies, students and parents
  • Level of comparison: institutional
  • Major dimensions covered: employability, knowledge transfer, research
  • Structure of presentation: multi-indicator ranking, ordinary presentation (league tables)
  • Data sources: third-party database (data not provided by HEI)
  • Quality assurance of ranking: advisory board
  • Website of the ranking organization: http://www.shanghairanking.com/index.html
  • Types of the ranking organization: commercial/for-profit (incl. media)