World University Rankings: important information on data collection and analysis for 2014

Every one of the hundreds of universities ranked in Times Higher Education’s portfolio of global university rankings have actively volunteered to share data and join the assessment process

Participation in the project is entirely free of charge, and in contrast to other global ranking systems, institutional data is submitted and signed-off by each and every participating institution, before being combined with a wide range of independent data to create the annual World University Rankings.

THE magazine decides on the performance indicators and sets the indicator weightings for all of its rankings, but all the data used to create the rankings is collected and analysed by Thomson Reuters under its Global Institutional Profiles Project, which in addition to the rankings, also provides the Institutional Profiles service.

Several hundred universities from all corners of the world are of course already signed up for the annual data collection round – allowing them to be included in the full range of ranking analyses, including the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the Asia University Rankings, the Times Higher Education 100 Under 50 and the BRIC & Emerging Economies Rankings. Each year, more and more institutions ask to join the process, as they seek visibility on the global stage and to benchmark themselves against Times Higher Education’s established and rigorous performance benchmarks, and Thomson Reuters’ robust and trusted data.

Any institution that is not already signed up for the process, but wants to be included in the analysis for the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2014-15, to be published in October 2014, and any of the subsequent specialist rankings, must contact Thomson Reuters by no later than 15 December 2013.

Contact Thomson Reuters before 15 December, at: science.profilesproject@thomsonreuters.com

To be considered for the overall World University Rankings, institutions must:

• Produce a minimum of 200 publications per year (articles, notes, reviews), on average over a five year period
• Have undergraduate and doctoral students (so should not be a graduate-only school)
• Not be a single subject school such as a medical or business school (though exceptions are made in certain cases where an institution may be included in the THE Subject Ranking)

However, as the database deepens, and more regional, or subject-level or specialist analyses become possible, so institutions with different profiles can be included on a discretionary basis.

Times Higher Education is committed to working with universities to provide robust, transparent and trusted performance information.

For editorial enquiries about all of THE’s rankings, please email rankings@timeshighereducation.co.uk