The Folha University Ranking is an annual assessment of all active universities in the country that uses national and international data and two Datafolha opinion polls, in five aspects (research, teaching, employment, internationalization and innovation). The following indicators are considered in the general ranking:

RESEARCH 42%

• Papers (number of scientific papers published by university) – 7% (source: Web of Science)
• Citations (total number of citations received) – 7% (source: Web of Science)
• Citations per paper – 4% (source: Web of Science)
• Paper per academic staff – 7% (source: Web of Science)
• Citations per academic staff – 7% (source: Web of Science)
• Papers in national journals – 3% (source: Scientific Electronic Library Online, SciELO)
• Funding received by university – 3% (source: Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira – Ministério da Educação, Inep-MEC)
• CNPq scholarship (percentage of academic staff considered productive by CNPq) – 2% (source: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, CNPq)
• Thesis – 2% (source: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, CNPq) 

TEACHING 32% 

• Academic staff opinion – 20% (source: Survey)
• Percentage of academic staff with PhD or Masters – 4% (source: Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira – Ministério da Educação, Inep-MEC)
• Percentage of full-time and part time academic staff – 4% (source: Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira – Ministério da Educação, Inep-MEC)
• Enade grade – 4% (source: Exame Nacional de Desempenho dos Estudantes, Enade) 

EMPLOYMENT 18% 

• Employer’s opinion – 18% (source: Survey)

INTERNATIONALIZATION 4% 

• International citations per academic staff – 2% (source: Web of Science)
• Papers with international co-authorship – 2% (source: Web of Science) 

INNOVATION 4% 

• Patent (number of patents applied for by the university) – 2% (source: Instituto Nacional da Propriedad Industrial, INPI)
• Industry partnership (number of university studies with industry partnership) – 2% (source: Instituto Nacional da Propriedad Industrial, INPI)