To understand the research strength criteria further, we have a few other clarifying points regarding our treatment of Scopus data; most, if not all of which also apply to our analysis for the forthcoming cycle of regional and global rankings:
- Our analysis is based on an extract from Scopus (custom data), and not on the live database, in order for us to be drawing on a consistent dataset within each cycle of research.
For the QS World University Rankings published in June 2021, the Scopus database was downloaded in April 2020. Changes made in the database after this date will be only reflected in the next export in April 2021 for the following rankings cycle.
*Optional As for the missing articles, if they were attributed to your account by April 2020 and were not taken into consideration it likely indicates that they can be described as low citation yielding materials which we don’t include in the analysis.
- The Scopus data are extracted as per the ASJC codes attached to this email.
- The window for both publications and citations is five and six years respectively (2015 to 2019 for papers and 2015 to 2020 for Citations)
- Self-citations are excluded from all citation counts.
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Multidisciplinary publications (published in sources with the only ASJC code 1000) do not contribute towards counts for any discipline (although they do if you run a search in Scopus, so be sure to edit your search query if you are trying to verify our numbers).
- Some content types have been excluded (see paper definitions -https://support.qs.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360019156319-Paper-Definitions)
- All affiliations we know about are considered. We exclude overseas campuses and NHS trust affiliations.