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On the internal dynamics of the Shanghai ranking

Author

Listed:
  • Domingo Docampo

    (Universidad de Vigo)

  • Lawrence Cram

    (Australian National University)

Abstract

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) published by researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University has become a major source of information for university administrators, country officials, students and the public at large. Recent discoveries regarding its internal dynamics allow the inversion of published ARWU indicator scores to reconstruct raw scores for 500 world class universities. This paper explores raw scores in the ARWU and in other contests to contrast the dynamics of rank-driven and score-driven tables, and to explain why the ARWU ranking is a score-driven procedure. We show that the ARWU indicators constitute sub-scales of a single factor accounting for research performance, and provide an account of the system of gains and non-linearities used by ARWU. The paper discusses the non-linearities selected by ARWU, concluding that they are designed to represent the regressive character of indicators measuring research performance. We propose that the utility and usability of the ARWU could be greatly improved by replacing the unwanted dynamical effects of the annual re-scaling based on raw scores of the best performers.

Suggested Citation

  • Domingo Docampo & Lawrence Cram, 2014. "On the internal dynamics of the Shanghai ranking," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(2), pages 1347-1366, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:98:y:2014:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-013-1143-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-013-1143-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Domingo Docampo & Lawrence Cram, 2019. "Highly cited researchers: a moving target," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(3), pages 1011-1025, March.
    2. Wei-Chao Lin & Ching Chen, 2021. "Novel World University Rankings Combining Academic, Environmental and Resource Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Antonio Fernández-Cano & Elvira Curiel-Marin & Manuel Torralbo-Rodríguez & Mónica Vallejo-Ruiz, 2018. "Questioning the Shanghai Ranking methodology as a tool for the evaluation of universities: an integrative review," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(3), pages 2069-2083, September.
    4. Massucci, Francesco Alessandro & Docampo, Domingo, 2019. "Measuring the academic reputation through citation networks via PageRank," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 185-201.
    5. D. Docampo & D. Egret & L. Cram, 2015. "The effect of university mergers on the Shanghai ranking," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 104(1), pages 175-191, July.
    6. Domingo Docampo & Lawrence Cram, 2015. "On the effects of institutional size in university classifications: the case of the Shanghai ranking," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(2), pages 1325-1346, February.

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