The ShanghaiRanking's Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) uses six indicators including the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, number of highly cited researchers selected by Clarivate Analytics, 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.

Alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (Alumni) (10%)

The total number of the alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals. Alumni are defined as those who obtain bachelor, Master's or doctoral degrees from the institution. Different weights are set according to the periods of obtaining degrees. The weight is 100% for alumni obtaining degrees after 2011, 90% for alumni obtaining degrees in 2001-2010, 80% for alumni obtaining degrees in 1991-2000, and so on, and finally 10% for alumni obtaining degrees in 1921-1930. If a person obtains more than one degrees from an institution, the institution is considered once only.

Staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (Award) (20%)

The total number of the staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine and Economics and Fields Medal in Mathematics. Staff is defined as those who work at an institution at the time of winning the prize. Different weights are set according to the periods of winning the prizes. The weight is 100% for winners after 2011, 90% for winners in 2001-2010, 80% for winners in 1991-2000, 70% for winners in 1981-1990, and so on, and finally 10% for winners in 1921-1930. If a winner is affiliated with more than one institution, each institution is assigned the reciprocal of the number of institutions. For Nobel prizes, if a prize is shared by more than one person, weights are set for winners according to their proportion of the prize.

Highly Cited Researchers (HiCi) (20%)

The number of Highly Cited Researchers selected by Clarivate Analytics. The Highly Cited Researchers list issued in November 2019  was used for the calculation of HiCi indicator in ARWU 2020. Only the primary affiliations of Highly Cited Researchers are considered.

Papers published in Nature and Science (N&S) (20%)

The number of papers published in Nature and Science between 2015 and 2019. To distinguish the order of author affiliation, a weight of 100% is assigned for corresponding author affiliation, 50% for first author affiliation (second author affiliation if the first author affiliation is the same as corresponding author affiliation), 25% for the next author affiliation, and 10% for other author affiliations. Only publications of 'Article' type is considered.

Papers indexed in Science Citation Index-Expanded and Social Science Citation Index (PUB) (20%)

Total number of papers indexed in Science Citation Index-Expanded and Social Science Citation Index in 2019. Only publications of 'Article' type is considered. When calculating the total number of papers of an institution, a special weight of two was introduced for papers indexed in Social Science Citation Index.

Per capita academic performance of an institution (PCP) (10%)

The weighted scores of the above five indicators divided by the number of full-time equivalent academic staff. If the number of academic staff for institutions of a country cannot be obtained, the weighted scores of the above five indicators is used.