The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University, Netherlands, has announced that it will publish a new university ranking next year using open data and open algorithms. This will complement the current rankings derived from data in the Web of Science.
According to Ludo Waltman, Deputy Director of CWTS, most current rankings lack transparency, combine complex metrics into a single number, and provide insufficient information about their methodology.
Waltman is reported as saying that “if the data is openly available, anyone who has some level of computational skill can make their own rankings and that means that we democratise the debate about what matters in science.” He said that CWTS would use the same methodology for both the open source and the standard rankings.
Depending on the outcomes and the reception of the new rankings, CWTS will consider how to proceed further.
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