Scopus Custom Data Fuels World Rankings

Scopus®, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality Web sources with smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research, today announced that Scopus Custom Data is being used to help establish the annual THES-QS World University Rankings. Scopus has been chosen to provide the data source for the metric evaluation for the official rankings to ensure that greater clarity and transparency can be guaranteed.

The THES, a London-based weekly newspaper that reports specifically on higher education issues, has published its World University Rankings annually since 2004. It works closely with QS, a leading independent network for higher education and related careers that acts as its research and data analysis arm.

The full report of this year’s university rankings will be publicized on 9th November which will, for the first time, come from Scopus. Ben Sowter, QS’ Head of Research explains that: “As our own methodology develops and improves, we felt we needed a more comprehensive data source. We believe that the strong data found in Scopus, combined with other enhancements we’ve made to our methodology, including the use of z-score aggregation to generate overall scores, will help stabilize rankings, making them more effective for tracking year-on-year performance. They will also result in a more robust and balanced measure of comparative international university quality.”

The decision to move to Scopus was made based on the quality of the data. QS found that Scopus can provide enhanced transparency and clarity for the rankings and have expressed various reasons why Scopus data was preferred. Firstly, more data is available, also for institutions outside the United States providing a more representative global picture for this indicator. Secondly, Scopus covers a larger number of papers and journals from 1996 onwards leading to a greater representation from universities and institutions that have adopted academic systems with different publication patterns. Thirdly, Scopus incorporates non-English language content resulting in better numbers for institutions with large volumes of high quality research in their own language. And finally, Scopus provides access to greater data details that enhances the quality and transparency of the ranking process.

“We are extremely proud to be working together with both the THES and QS, as we recognize the importance of these rankings. We are committed to providing the most objective and comprehensive data for the analysis”, explains Jay Katzen, Managing Director Academic & Government Products. “This momentous occasion proves that Scopus has not only won the endorsement of many customers and end-users but is now also clearly supported by the research performance measurement community.”