[0:10]Yeah, hello everyone. We're back at it, mastering rankings. And today you know we did Times Higher Education, QS, academic ranking of world universities, we did web metrics.
[0:23]Have we done all? Oh, no, no, we have several, several others. But what we're going to do now is to put all of them together in this lesson.
[0:31]Today's March 9, 2026. And I'm Peter Okebukola. So what are these others that I've been looking at? We're looking at U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities.
[0:41]BGU. We're going to look at this, going to look at this, going to look at this. And then we'll look at individual scholar rankings: AD Scientific & Clarivate.
[0:50]Let's begin with U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities. We'll be looking at the history, methodology, timeline, application strategies. This is the site where we'll get there. We're going to see it exactly like that.
[1:03]Now, let's see the history and background. 1983 was the year. 1983 was when it was launched. But that time, for U.S. domestic college rankings.
[1:14]And then, it by 2014, they decided to expand globally. So you had the Best Global Universities ranking launched. The first edition, 2014, put into the net 500 universities worldwide.
[1:30]By 2016, it expanded to regional rankings. So you have Europe region as a region, Asia, Latin America, Arab, and of course, great Africa. Over 2,000 universities ranked globally, 2022. And and the rest.
[1:44]So what are the indicators? You know, I like these indicators, you can see I'm sitting in between the band of indicators, 12 of them: global research reputation. You can see the weights, 12.5%. Regional research reputation, 12.5%. Publications, 10%. And all of this, all of this, all of this.
[2:07]12 in total. 12 in total. So, but where does U.S. News get this data on Best Global Universities?
[2:18]I ask the question, but I'm also telling you. I'll give you the answer, from Clarivate InCites/Web of Science.
[2:23]You begin to ask me today I'll talk about Web of Science, the other day I'll talk about Scopus, what is the difference? Oh, I'll tell you. I'll tell you, just, uh, cool temper. We have Academic Reputation Survey. Survey responses from 25,000+ senior academics ORCID/institutional affiliation data, university-submitted institutional data (select fields).
[2:37]And the rest. So, what is the publication timeline? January-March, you know, we're in March. Data collection and survey distribution.
[2:45]That's in progress, that's why we decided to put this training module 12 between February and March, to straddle the two. in between the three months.
[2:55]April-June, data validation and bibliometric analysis. July-August, ranking computation and QA. September-October, rankings published, typically October. Oct-Dec: Appeals window and corrections.
[3:11]Now, so what's the difference? Web of Science today, Scopus today? What is it? Now, for Web of Science, the owner or provider is called Clarivate Analytics. For Scopus, it's called Elsevier.
[3:24]For coverage, these are about 21,000 journals, these are about 27,000. Oh, you can see there it's broad. Citation metrics: Impact Factor, this CiteScore and the rest. Backfile depth: how far back the files that are indexed? From 1900, the year 1900.
[3:41]See how far back it is, but this one is from 1966. But it has more journals, meaning that it is broader. Now this one is index selectivity. This one is more selective. Web of Science is more selective. This one is broader.
[3:54]I've provided here, too, the strengths of the two, the limitations of the two, and when they are best for. So, let's look at strategies for African universities to do well.
[4:09]Yeah, to do well in Best Global Universities published by U.S. News. It makes sense now. We have to increase our Web of Science indexed publications, because that is where U.S. News will collect the data.
[4:22]So when you are publishing, ensure that it goes to Web of Science. You ask me, "Okay, what about science?" Uh, Scopus. Well, just keep publishing. Publish in, uh, the two camps. Boost international co-authorship.
[4:35]So it's not a question of, "Hey, uh, the authors are all from Nigeria, the authors are..." No. Author from Nigeria, from Ghana, from Egypt, from the U.S., from wherever. Let's boost that one. Improve citation impact. Submit to reputation survey. Establish research clusters. Create interdisciplinary centres of excellence focused on globally relevant problems - climate, health, agriculture, AI. Leverage open access. Attract & retain research talent. Track metrics via InCites.
[4:50]We have we have I co-leading one, we call it International Research Group. Our 204th meeting is going to hold, you know, uh, uh this week. Leverage open access. Attract and retain research talent. Track metrics via InCites. So, I think I should give you a demonstration of this before we progress to the other ranking scheme.
[5:27]Yeah, so all we're doing is, uh, we just do a Google, U.S. News & World, and then like that. So that's it, U.S. 2025-2026 Best Global Universities Rankings by U.S. News & World Report. So let's see how this thing looks like.
[5:40]That is the slide I showed to you. So that is it. You can see Harvard is number one. Let me put this off. No, no ad. Uh, not, not now.
[5:53]Harvard is number one. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the rest. So this is it. It's so nice that, look, all you need to do, let's say University of Ibadan, the name of school. Let's just say Ibadan.
[6:05]University of Ibadan. Not Ibadan, oh. Ibadan, call it like that. Ibadan. That's said. University of Ibadan. So it will tell you, let me make this slightly bigger. No, not yet, not yet.
[6:17]Uh, 360, number 360 in Best Global Universities. There's a tie. Number 11 in Best Global Universities in Africa. Number 2 in Best Global Universities in Nigeria.
[6:29]You can see it has subject rankings, too: clinical medicine, environmental and the rest. You can see this. So it gives you all the data for the global score, global research reputation, global research reputat... and the regional research reputation. All those indicators that I mentioned are here. So that is it. You can explore it after this lesson.
[6:51]Yeah, so the next one is CWTS Leiden Ranking. We're going to go through this whole thing as we did before. So this is the site that we're going to get into. So it is this CWTS. What did it mean?
[7:00]It is Center for Science & Technology Studies, Leiden University, Netherlands, launched the Leiden Ranking as a research-only ranking focused on bibliometric rigour. Uh, this one has so many interesting attributes, because it has gender diversity introduced as an indicator.
[7:18]And it expands to include non-English language publications. What are the core indicators? See them plenty: five here, five here, 10. You can see PP, female, gender, fractional counting, and and and all of these things that you have.
[7:35]So that's another, very wonderful one. So let's look at the unique features. It's purely, purely bibliometric. No surveys, no reputational scores, entirely objective based on Clarivate Web of Science data only.
[7:44]Field normalization. All citation-based indicators are normalized by research field, year, and document type measures cross-disciplinary comparison. Fractional vs. whole counting. Users can toggle between fractional counting (fair) and whole counting (raw) to explore different perspectives. Interactive online platform.
[7:54]It has a fully interactive tool at leidenranking.com. Users can filter by country, field, size, and indicators. So what is the threshold to enter that kingdom? What must you have?
[8:05]Eligibility threshold: minimum 800 WoS-indexed publications over the 4-year period to qualify for inclusion. Is that a steep thing, steep hill to climb? No. But also, yes. Because there are some universities that are not doing so well. Over the years, they just promote and all of that. So you are, you will find it difficult to get in there.
[8:32]But if you are able, work very hard, you can achieve this. Even one person or two or three in the university can do that. So no self-reporting. No self-reporting. Universities cannot submit data. Cannot submit data. The whole thing is entirely third-party through Web of Science. So that's it now. More strategies for African universities. What shall we do?
[8:54]See, the same thing. Try to reach the 800 publication threshold. So maximise field-normalised impact. Pursue open access publishing. Grow international collaborations. This thing. The same thing, oh.
[9:10]It says, we started QS Times Higher Education, International Collaborations, Industry Partnerships, Gender Inclusion. This one is unique. Monitor this, build research capacity. Let let's do a a little demonstration of it.
[9:23]Yeah, so the same, you come up with Google and then, uh, this ranking. Let's see what comes out there. You can see CWTS Leiden Ranking. Let's see how it asks you two parts: Is it the one open edition or this one traditional? Let's go to, let's look at the traditional edition.
[9:42]Yeah, so this is the traditional edition. Let's look at ranking of 2025. Where is it? Ranking 2025, this one.
[9:54]Yeah, so the nice thing about this is you can do it this field, all sciences, uh, country, world. So for the world that's what you have for the all sciences. You can you can flick this. Let's say Africa. Africa. That's it. Great Africa. Cairo is coming first. But you can also see field all sciences.
[10:13]Let's assume that is all life sciences. You can toggle with this, you can toggle. You can just select anyone that you want there. And it gives you the ranking.
[10:25]Uh, you can also just work around with this. You can also select your your your indicators and your weights, and it gives you the rankings. Very nice, very nice, I tell you.
[10:37]After that demonstration, let's go on to the next one. Hmm. Center for World University Rankings. We're going to go through that same process.
[10:44]This is what we're going to see. What we're going to that site. Hey, it was founded in Saudi Arabia by Nadim Mahassen. Uh, the first global edition was published, that's 2012. First published in 2013.
[11:01]And the headquarters moved in 2017 to UAE. And ranking expanded to cover over 2,000 universities. Now, it ranks over 20,000 universities. Africa coverage improved significantly from 2022. What are the indicators?
[11:16]You know, this day has to do with indicators, don't the first lesson? Indicators and their weights. So, these indicators are weighing the quality of education, 25%, alumni employment, quality of faculty, research output. Is are you reminded of something, the one that is closer to it from the one we learned before? So you can see there are eight of them. Hmm.
[11:41]So where, where are the data sources? Publications. The data sources are publications Clarivate Web of Science and Scopus databases for research output, quality publications, and citation data. No university submission required. CWUR does not solicit data from universities. All indicators are derived from publicly verifiable third-party sources. I think we can do that in our own ranking that will be coming up.
[12:07]The annual timeline. January to April. You can see January to March, April, then, you know, uh, uh, data collection, rankings computed. Scoring system is there. Subject rankings there. And broad coverage, over 20,000 universities. So what are the strategies for Africa? What can we do?
[12:26]It's the same thing I've been saying, oh. The same, same thing. Track award achievements, alumni executive tracking, increase publication volume, improve citation profile, attract award-winning faculty, subject ranking focus, industry partnerships for alumni, benchmark against African leaders. You want a demo? Oh, of course, let me just show you.
[12:50]Yeah, so the same, you come up with Google and then, um, you come to Center for World University Rankings 2025. 2025 rankings. So, that is it. That's what I showed you earlier. So you can see Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford, the usual people, the usual people.
[13:14]So you can check all of this and, uh, you have that's the latest 2025 ranking. And then check, you can see the different indicators and their weights.
[13:26]So that brings us to the end of, uh, the global, uh, institutional, yes, institutional. The next the next batch that I'm going to be sharing with you are the individual, individual scholars.
[13:37]And the first one is AD Scientific. The two that we'll be looking at: AD Scientific and Clarivate. We're going to look at the history and all of that, like we said.
[13:46]Let's look at AD Scientific. This came out only like yesterday, 2021. And, uh, Alper and Doger, that's the AD, these are the people, where it comes, uh, with the thing, you know. Scientific Index from Turkey. Turkey and then do this wonderful thing. So 2021.
[14:06]Covers over 12 million researchers worldwide that are ranked. So, for you to be ranked, I kept talking about this Google Scholar thing.
[14:18]Researchers must have a verified public Google Scholar profile with a minimum h-index of six. A h-index of six. Before you are, so if you are not, if you are not on Google Scholar, if you are not on Google Scholar, you don't have respectable, small h-index, then you are not there.
[14:39]So rankings available by world, the country, institution, field, you can you can, uh, sort, you know, by, uh, all of this.
[14:50]So this is how the site looks like. AD Scientific. And then you search by name of the scientist, and it gives you the thing. And you can do it by, uh, institution, you can ask it to which is, which, uh, scholar is best best ranked in the institution.
[15:03]Let's go on to the last one, Clarivate. Clarivate was Institute for Scientific Information, ISI, not International School Ibadan. ISI, Institute for Scientific Information is now Clarivate. It launched the concept Highly Cited Researchers list. Initially, it was covering science and social sciences. Mhm. But now it's broader.
[15:26]So Web of Science, or later, Web of Science. It was Web of Knowledge before. Now it's Web of Science. Became the bibliometric backbone of this highly cited researchers. All right. Over 7,000 highly cited researchers are named. Annual list published in November. So soon and very soon, the list will be published.
[15:46]This is how Clarivate looks like. Clarivate. You go to the site, it looks like this. What are the selection criteria? Now, you have top 1% threshold, 11-year citation window, 21 ESI research fields. Look at them. Your own, there, there. Cross-field category. Institutional affiliation. Annual publication. Not for you to just rest. After this, this thing, say you don't be professor, so nothing again.
[16:20]Yeah, it will knock you off that list. ESI Hot Papers. Exclusively Web of Science. Not Elsevier Scopus. All right. So now let's take these two together: AD Scientific and Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers. What are the strategies for us in Africa?
[16:37]One, you must create and optimize Google Scholar profile. We keep talking about this Google Scholar thing, very, very important. Publish in Web of Science indexed journals, build citation momentum.
[16:50]When the thing start, don't let it rest. Just keep going, galloping on. Correct affiliation in Web of Science. Target high-impact journals. Write review articles. Increase h-index strategically. Register ORCID and ResearcherID. That's what I asked you to do. When I asked you to do the things, you say, "What's wrong with this man? Why is he asking me to do that?" Many of you have done it before.
[17:11]So for the others, you can see why this is very important. So what is strategic roadmap for African universities and scholars?
[17:19]Uh, looking at the this rankings, U.S. News, Leiden, this AD Scientific and Clarivate. The focus, institutional. Here, scholars. Survey-based, yes, no, no, no survey. Data sources you can see, publication minimum not fixed. This one, 800 over four years. This, all of that. So, QA indicator. Africa coverage, moderate, low-moderate, uh, that low to moderate, excuse me. Release October, release April-May, and June and the rest.
[17:46]So I'm giving you a 10-year strategic roadmap for African universities. Phase 1, year 1-2. These are the foundation years. Phase 2, the growth years. Uh, the year, year of excellence. I assure you, I show you that by God's special grace, African universities, see Harvard, we'll put them behind. We'll dust them.
[18:07]You know, Mr. Bolt, 100 meters, you will dash. So we're going to go, do very well. Africa, I'm very proud. Very proud of what I have shown you all, huh? 10-Year Roadmap: African Scholar Path to Clarivate HCR & AD Scientific Top Rankings.
[18:17]I also provide this goes on and on like that. Now, the moment for us, for Africa, Africa must claim this century. Sleeping Giant, wake up, my friend, wake up! It's now.
[18:30]Audit your research output. Know your Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar metrics and all that. Join or establish an institutional rankings committee. Treat rankings as institutional strategy. I can't expect that you finish this course and I just go this thing. You have to get your memo. Read a memo to your vice-chancellor or head of institution. Say this thing, we must move. Make every publication open access. Visibility precedes citation. Build international research networks. Collaboration multiplies impact. Mentor the next generation. Mentor the next generation. You be professor. You no get any this person is supervising. You don't get anybody they mentor. That is not so good. Uh, we have to get it all done.
[19:10]So what have we learned in this lesson? Hmm. Quite a lot. Uh, we learned about U.S. News Best Global Universities. We learned about this, this, about this, learned about this. Quite a lot. So what is next? Yeah, what is next? Next lesson, we are going to do it ourselves. Do-It-Yourself Practical Rankings.
[19:28]That is going to be exciting. I wish you all well. From Peter Okebukola. It's bye-bye for now. Bye-bye.
