There are two research indicators utilized in our business school rankings suite: Research Impact (Global MBA and Business Masters Rankings) and Research Strength (MBA by Career Specialization Rankings).
Research Impact
This uses the mean values of Citations per Paper and H-Index scores calculated per subject as part of our most recent Subject Rankings. The combined Research Impact score is the weighted average of those mean values across relevant subjects (see the table below).
Research Impact:
Weights of QS subjects (from the QS Subject Rankings) in the QS Business School Rankings
| QS subject * | Global MBA | Masters in Management | Masters in Finance | Masters in Business Analytics | Masters in Marketing | Masters in Supply Chain Management |
| Accounting & Finance | - | - | 40% | - | - | - |
| Business & Management | 100% | 100% | 40% | 50% | 35% | 40% |
| Computer Science & Information Systems | - | - | - | 12.5% | - | 20% |
| Economics & Econometrics | - | - | 20% | 12.5% | - | - |
| Mathematics | - | - | - | 12.5% | - | - |
| Statistics & Operational Research | - | - | - | 12.5% | 15% | 40% |
| Communication & Media Studies | - | - | - | - | 50% | - |
* The full list of QS subjects and their corresponding ASJC codes can be found here ("ASJC Mapping" tab).
The obtained weighted averages are normalized by z-scores.
Research Strength
This indicator from QS MBA by Career Specialization Rankings is a mean of Research Impact score from QS Global MBA Rankings (see above) and Citations score, designed specifically for different MBA specializations from QS MBA by Career Specialization Rankings.
Citations (self-citations excluded) are extracted per specialization from Elsevier's Scopus using the following ASJC codes of Scopus journals.
Research Strength:
Mappings between MBA specializations and ASJC codes of Scopus journals
| MBA Specialization | Scopus ASJC code |
| Consulting | 1408 Strategy and Management |
| Entrepreneurship | 1405 Management of Technology and Innovation |
| Finance | 2003 Finance |
| Information Management | 1404 Management Information Systems |
| Marketing | 1406 Marketing |
| Operations Management | 1803 Management Science and Operations Research |
| Technology | 1405 Management of Technology and Innovation |
The extracted citation counts are normalized by z-scores.
Please note that in both indicators, if a business schools is a child institution, it will be naturally rewarded by the extra research originated from their parent institution. This reflects the innate advantage of students from such business schools, having extra research-related opportunities offered by the parent institution. At the same time, a possible deeper and narrower research specialization of standalone business schools is rewarded as part of the methods for Citations per Paper and H-Index, where papers published in niche journals carry extra weight.