The Leiden ranking 2011/2012: Data collection, indicators, and interpretation

The Leiden Ranking 2011/2012 is a ranking of universities based on bibliometric indicators of publication output, citation impact, and scientific collaboration. The ranking includes 500 major universities from 41 different countries. This paper provides an extensive discussion of the Leiden Ranking...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 2012-12, Vol.63 (12), p.2419-2432
Main Authors: Waltman, Ludo, Calero-Medina, Clara, Kosten, Joost, Noyons, Ed C.M., Tijssen, Robert J.W., van Eck, Nees Jan, van Leeuwen, Thed N., van Raan, Anthony F.J., Visser, Martijn S., Wouters, Paul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bibliometrics
Bibliometrics. Scientometrics
Bibliometrics. Scientometrics. Evaluation
Citation analysis
Collaboration
Colleges & universities
Data acquisition
Data collection
Documents
English language
Exact sciences and technology
Higher education
Indicators
Information and communication sciences
Information science. Documentation
Innovations
Library and information science. General aspects
Manycountries
Non-English languages
Publication output
Ranking
Ratings & rankings
Scholarly publishing
Sciences and techniques of general use
Studies
Universities
University research
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Summary:The Leiden Ranking 2011/2012 is a ranking of universities based on bibliometric indicators of publication output, citation impact, and scientific collaboration. The ranking includes 500 major universities from 41 different countries. This paper provides an extensive discussion of the Leiden Ranking 2011/2012. The ranking is compared with other global university rankings, in particular the Academic Ranking of World Universities (commonly known as the Shanghai Ranking) and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. The comparison focuses on the methodological choices underlying the different rankings. Also, a detailed description is offered of the data collection methodology of the Leiden Ranking 2011/2012 and of the indicators used in the ranking. Various innovations in the Leiden Ranking 2011/2012 are presented. These innovations include (1) an indicator based on counting a university's highly cited publications, (2) indicators based on fractional rather than full counting of collaborative publications, (3) the possibility of excluding non‐English language publications, and (4) the use of stability intervals. Finally, some comments are made on the interpretation of the ranking and a number of limitations of the ranking are pointed out.
ISSN:1532-2882
2330-1635
1532-2890
2330-1643
DOI:10.1002/asi.22708