Aims
International Research Network (IRN) is a measure of an institution's success in creating and sustaining research partnerships with institutions in other locations.
The indicator measures how diverse and rich an institution's research network is by looking at the number of different countries represented, and whether these relationships are renewed and repeated.
We only consider sustained partnerships, defined as those which result in three or more joint papers published in a five-year period.
It forms part of the Global Engagement lens.
Relevant Rankings
International Research Network is an indicator used in the following rankings:
- QS World University Rankings
- QS Subject Rankings
- QS Arab Region Rankings
- QS Asia Region Rankings
- QS Europe Region Rankings
- QS Latin America and Caribbean Region Rankings
It forms part of the Global Engagement lens.
Methodology
Below you can find the weightings for the indicator. Weightings are reviewed on an annual basis.
| Ranking Project | Weighting |
| QS World University Rankings | 5% |
| QS Subject Rankings |
5% Arts and Humanities 10% Engineering and Technology 10% Life Sciences and Medicine 10% Natural Sciences 5% Social Sciences and Management |
| QS Arab Region Rankings | 10% |
| QS Asia Region Rankings | 10% |
| QS Europe Region Rankings | 10% |
| QS Latin America and Caribbean Region Rankings | 10% |
QS Subject Rankings
In the QS Subject Rankings, we only include International Research Network for subjects with a paper threshold of more than 50 papers over the last five years.
Data Sources
The data used for this indicator is drawn from Elsevier's Scopus research database. Scopus is a source-neutral abstract and citation database curated by independent subject matter experts.
Calculations
For papers in the five faculty areas:
- The distinct count of international countries/territories is divided by the natural logarithm of the distinct count of international partners
- The values for each faculty are scaled using min-max normalization from 1-100
- We create an average (mean) of the scaled scores
- Z-score normalization is applied
- The Z-score is rescaled
*Steps 1-3 are not applicable for the QS Subject Rankings
