Aims
The Research and Discovery lens measures both an institution's research quality, volume, and its reputation in the academic community.
Institutions who score highly in this lens are likely to be producing high volumes of research output, have research which is widely cited by other academics, and will have built a reputation in the academic community to reflect this.
The lens is made up of a combination of the following indicators: Academic Reputation; Citations per Faculty; Citations per Paper; H-Index Citations; Papers per Faculty
Relevant Rankings
Research and Discovery (RD) is a lens used in the following rankings:
Indicators
The Academic Reputation (AR) indicator measures the reputation of institutions and their programmes by asking academic experts to nominate universities based on their subject area of expertise.
The indicator not only illuminates the quality of an institution's research, but also their approach to academic partnerships, their strategic impact, their educational innovativeness and the impact they have made on education and society at large.
The Citations per Faculty (CPF) indicator is a measure of the relative intensity and volume of research being done at an institution. It highlights the volume of citations being achieved on average by an institution's academic staff.
The citation count is divided by the number of individuals in the faculty in order to take into account different sizes of institution.
The Citations per Paper (CPP) indicator is a measure of the relative intensity of research being done at an institution. It highlights the volume of citations per publication achieved by an institution's academic staff.
The citation count is divided by the number of individuals in the faculty in order to take into account different sizes of institution.
The H-index Citations (HI) indicator is based on the set of the scientist’s most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other publications.
Unlike Citations per Paper, it highlights the work of teams within an institution, as opposed to the institution as a whole.
The Papers per Faculty (PPF) indicator is a measure of the relative volume of research being done at an institution. It highlights the volume of academic papers published by an institution's academic staff.
The paper count is divided by the number of individuals in the faculty in order to take into account different sizes of institution.
Methodology
Below you can find the weightings for this lens in each research project. Weightings are reviewed on an annual basis. Click on each project for more detailed information.
| Ranking Project | Indicators | Weighting |
| QS World University Rankings | Academic Reputation; Citations per Faculty | 50% |
| QS Subject Rankings | Academic Reputation; Citations per Paper; H-Index Citations |
75% Arts & Humanities 60% Engineering & Technology 80% Life Sciences & Medicine 70% Natural Sciences 65% Social Sciences & Management |
| QS Arab Region Rankings | Academic Reputation; Citations per Paper; Papers per Faculty | 40% |
| QS Asia Region Rankings | Academic Reputation; Citations per Paper; Papers per Faculty | 45% |
| QS Europe Region Rankings | Academic Reputation; Citations per Paper; Papers per Faculty | 45% |
| QS Latin America and Caribbean Region Rankings | Academic Reputation; Citations per Paper; Papers per Faculty | 45% |
| QS International Trade Ranking | Academic Reputation; Citations per Paper |
20% EMBA 15% MBA and Master's |
