The Ranking Web of Universities (Webometrics) is the largest academic ranking by number of HEIs analyzed - it is a ranking of all the universities of the world, not only a few hundred institutions from the developed world. It provides reliable and multidimensional information about the performance of universities. There is no classification of the different institutional types, so research-intensive universities are listed together with community colleges or theological seminaries. However, the rank segregates all of them so it is not difficult to build sub-rankings for those interested. The Ranking is published twice a year (data is collected during the first weeks of January and July and published at the end of both months) and uses both webometric (all missions) and bibliometric (research mission)  indicators.

In terms of research output, Webometrics includes not only formal (e-journals, repositories) publications but also informal scholarly communication. Web publication is cheaper, maintaining the high standards of quality of peer review processes. It could also reach much larger potential audiences, offering access to scientific knowledge to researchers and institutions located in developing countries and also to third parties (economic, industrial, political or cultural stakeholders) in their local community.

Webometrics also measures, in an indirect way, other missions like teaching or the third mission, considering not only the scientific impact of the university activities, but also the economic relevance of the technology transfer to industry, the community engagement (social, cultural, environmental roles) and even the political influence.

The primary objective of Webometrics is to promote Web publication and suport Open Access initiatives and electronic access to scientific publications. The intention of the ranking is to motivate both institutions and scholars to have a web presence that reflects accurately their activities. It uses the following indicators:

VISIBILITY (50%)

Number of external networks (subnets) linking  to the institutions webpages (normalized and then the maximum value is chosen).  Data source: Majestic.

TRANSPARENCY or OPENNESS (10%)

Number of citations from Top 310 authors  (excluding the top 20 outliers). Data source: Google Scholar Profiles.

EXCELLENCE or SCHOLAR (40%)

Number of papers amongst the top 10% most cited in each of the 27 disciplines of the full database. Data for the five year period (2019-2023). Data source: Scimago.

The combination of indicators is the result of a careful investigation and it is not open to individual choosing by users without enough knowledge or expertise in this field. Webometrics is continuously researching for improving the ranking, changing or evolving the indicators and the weighting model to provide a better classification.