How can I understand global university rankings?

Answer

Understanding university rankings through SciVal and InCites

While the University of Manchester recognises that global university rankings reflect only part of what we value, they remain influential in higher education—shaping institutional reputation, informing prospective students, and supporting benchmarking efforts.

Through our subscriptions to SciVal and InCites, the Office for Open Research provides access to detailed analytics that support understanding and engagement with major global rankings.


Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings

  • Assesses performance across teaching, research, citations, industry income, and international outlook

  • SciVal provides data aligned with THE's research and citation indicators
     

THE Impact Rankings

QS World University Rankings

  • Combines metrics on academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per faculty, and internationalisation

  • SciVal provides analytics that align with QS's citation per faculty metric 
     

Understanding the Shanghai / ARWU Ranking

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)—also known as the Shanghai Ranking—places strong emphasis on research excellence, including:

  • Publications in Nature and Science

  • Performance in prestigious awards such as Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals

  • Number of Highly Cited Researchers, as identified by Clarivate

  • Output in Web of Science-indexed journals (SCI and SSCI)


How InCites supports Shanghai Ranking analysis

Our subscription to InCites (Clarivate) can help you explore specific components of the ARWU methodology—particularly:

  • The number and subject areas of Highly Cited Researchers affiliated with the University

  • Web of Science publication metrics that influence institutional standing

📌 For tailored guidance on interpreting ARWU data or any support using InCites, please contact the Library’s Research Indicators team.
👉 Contact the team

How SciVal supports rankings analysis 

Our SciVal subscription enables: 

  • Deep dive analysis into research performance metrics that influence rankings 

  • Benchmarking against peer institutions 

  • Identification of areas of strength and opportunities for improvement 

  • Tracking of performance trends over time 

SciVal’s supplier, Elsevier, has produced a comprehensive guide to using the University rankings within SciVal. 

The Research Indicators team can also help you to understand how these rankings metrics relate to your area and what actions might help improve performance against specific indicators.  

Please Contact us if you wish to learn more about the various options that are available. 

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  • Last Updated 19 May 2025
  • Views 29
  • Answered By John Hynes

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