Monday 5 September 2016

Books to be included in World University Rankings analysis for first time | Times Higher Education (THE)

 Source: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/books-be-included-world-university-rankings-analysis-first-time




Books to be included in World University Rankings analysis for first time




Arts and humanities research will be better represented in the 2016-17 global league table



August 22, 2016







Book spines viewed from above
Source: iStock



The Times Higher Education World University Rankings
for 2016-17 will include an analysis of more than half a million books
and books chapters for the first time as part of its examination of
research excellence.


THE’s data team confirmed this week that for the 2016-17
World University Rankings, to be published in September 2016, a total of
11.9 million research publications (with more than 56 million
citations) will be included in the analysis.


Of this total, some 528,000 books and book chapters published
during the five-year period from 2011 to 2015 will be included in the
analysis for the first time.


The research publications are drawn from Elsevier’s Scopus database,
and include academic journal articles, reviews, conference proceedings,
books and book chapters. The addition of books ensures that the
rankings, now in their 13th annual edition, go even further in capturing
research excellence in the arts, humanities and social sciences, said THE rankings editor Phil Baty.


“Although the THE World University Rankings already go to
great lengths to ensure that arts and humanities and social sciences are
put on an equal footing with the hard sciences, through extensive
subject-level normalisation and of course the inclusion of many senior
academic representatives from these fields in our annual Academic
Reputation Survey, we are delighted to be working with Elsevier to
ensure that THE’s world rankings are more inclusive than ever in capturing the full range of subject-level outputs,” Mr Baty said.


“Much great research in the arts and humanities in particular is
published in books, rather than in journal articles, so the inclusion of
books in the rankings this year is a great step forward in giving full
recognition for these vital disciplines.”


In total, more than 69,000 books and 459,000 book chapters will be
included in the rankings analysis. Of these, about 83,000 book chapters
and 22,000 books are in the arts and humanities, while 160,000 chapters
and almost 29,000 books are in the social sciences. In addition, some
70,000 chapters, and 11,000 books are classified as business and
economics.


The 2016-17 World University Rankings will be based on the same methodology as the 2015-16 rankings,
with 13 separate performance indicators covering the full range of a
universities activities. Three indicators draw on Elsevier’s Scopus
database, including the most heavily weighted, which examines research
impact through an analysis of citations, weighted at 30 per cent of the
overall ranking score.






Books to be included in World University Rankings analysis for first time | Times Higher Education (THE)

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