Global Ranking Research Articles

The review of advanced methods and techniques for estimating research output in bibliometrics (Part 1)

The authors explore the significant changes in traditional bibliometrics, including distinctive innovations in this area. Within the five-year period (2019– 2024), two processes have had a significant impact on the methods and technologies: these are the COVID-19 pandemic period (recognition of the importance of open research outcomes) and the period of sanctions (an attempt to exclude Russia from the global scientific process).The authors review in brief the improvements of existing methods, e. g. the introduction of the system of beamplot diagrams and research-based citation analysis. The role of scientometrics in global rankings is evaluated. The focus is also made on new vectors of analysis development, such as altmetrics and artificial intelligence. The application of artificial intelligence tools not only ensures high speed but also lays the basis for the entirely new system for comparing scientific publications with the existing array of accumulated knowledge.

Frugal innovation and entrepreneurial university: a case study of African first development university in Africa

The concept of frugal innovation has gained significant traction in low middle-income countries due to its potential to contribute to sustainable development goals (SDGs). This study examines the role of universities in promoting frugal innovation and their capacity to drive socio-economic development through entrepreneurial initiatives. The objective is to explore how universities can serve as both entrepreneurial and development-focused institutions and to develop a conceptual framework to guide their efforts. The study utilizes an exploratory single case study methodology, focusing on the American University of Nigeria (AUN), a leading institution in Nigeria known for its development and entrepreneurship programs. Drawing on data from the AUN THE global impact ranking 2024, the results of the study indicate that the ability of a university to effectively manage technology and skills transfer in frugal innovations is influenced by six university capabilities, and the generation of frugal innovations is moderated by policy and innovation ecosystems involving government agencies, regulatory bodies, and policymakers. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by initiating a discussion on how development and entrepreneurship can support frugal innovation, and offers practical insights to inspire other universities to develop their own models for societal and economic impact. The study underscores the necessity of integrating “development” into the vision of universities, particularly in low middle-income and developing economies, and emphasizes the significance of universities embracing both entrepreneurial and development-focused roles. The findings highlight the potential of universities in advancing sustainable development goals, particularly in low middle-income and developing economies, as they work towards meeting the global SDGs by 2030.

Meta Learning to Rank for Sparsely Supervised Queries

Supervisory signals are a critical resource for training learning to rank models. In many real-world search and retrieval scenarios, these signals may not be readily available or could be costly to obtain for some queries. The examples include domains where labeling requires professional expertise, applications with strong privacy constraints, and user engagement information that are too scarce. We refer to these scenarios as sparsely supervised queries which pose significant challenges to traditional learning to rank models. In this work, we address sparsely supervised queries by proposing a novel meta learning to rank framework which leverages fast learning and adaption capability of meta-learning. The proposed approach accounts for the fact that different queries have different optimal parameters for their rankers, in contrast to traditional learning to rank models which only learn a global ranking model applied to all the queries. In consequence, the proposed method would yield significant advantages especially when new queries are of different characteristics with the training queries. Moreover, the proposed meta learning to rank framework is generic and flexible. We conduct a set of comprehensive experiments on both public datasets and a real-world e-commerce dataset. The results demonstrate that the proposed meta-learning approach can significantly enhance the performance of learning to rank models with sparsely labeled queries.

Uncovering hazards and adaptive capacity: A comprehensive risk assessment study in three conservation areas in Spain

The increase in the frequency, duration and severity of disturbances can disrupt forest composition and structure, posing threats to ecosystem services. Adaptive forest management has the potential to adjust forests to future disturbance regimes, by reducing their susceptibility to these threats and, therefore, increasing their adaptation capacity. However, few comprehensive studies have integrated the factors involved in adaptive forest management by comparing the biomass of national parks of the same region, or examined how global change might affect them in the near future. In this study, we integrate data of forest inventories, wildfires, high-resolution climate and pests information in climate model projections to assess climate-sensitive risks associated with key abiotic disturbances (such as fires, droughts and pests) in coniferous Mediterranean mountain forests, considering various forest management approaches and climate scenarios in three Spanish national parks. We employed the conceptual framework introduced by Lecina-Diaz et al. (2021a) to evaluate risks to forests and considered Exposed values (E), Hazard Magnitude (HM), Susceptibility (S) and Lack of Adaptive Capacity (LAC). We applied statistical weights using expert weights and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) as the basis for determining the global ranking score of each indicator of the risk components. We extracted information about the climatic scenarios from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6. Three forest management scenarios were generated, named “low intervention», «traditional silviculture”, and "reduction of climate vulnerability", and mapped the risks of carbon sequestration for the different scenarios. The importance of each component was estimated using the AHP. HM was most significantly affected by the Aridity Index and the Fire Risk Index, with weights of 27.7 % and 24.2 %, respectively; S was affected by fuel load (29.0 %) and the Suppression Difficulty index (21.0 %), and LAC was influenced by forest management (32.0 %) and resprouting capacity (22.0 %). The three forest management scenarios exhibited different risk values that decreased with increasing intensity of the intervention in the three protected areas. Likewise, when two climate scenarios were considered, risk increased in the protected areas (Teide National Park, 10.69 %; Sierra Nevada National Park, 10.9 %; Sierra de las Nieves National Park, 6.17 %). Patterns of spatial arrangement of risk, which included HM, S and LAC, were consistent with the risk level, with the highest risk values being concentrated in the buffer areas (natural parks), with areas with a greater presence of coniferous plantations. The risk maps allowed us to identify areas that are critical under extreme conditions and where the greatest disturbance events may occur. Our study underscores that risks of disturbances in mountain ecosystems dominated by conifers within protected areas can be mitigated by forest management. The application of forest management adaptation strategies in national parks and buffer areas has proven effective in reducing risks of disturbances and preserving certain ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration.

PLANNING FOR INCREASING LECTURER RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY

The World Class University trend in higher education has an impact on the need for planning in the research aspect because the quantity and quality of research are very influential in global university rankings. This research explores planning strategies as well as challenges and obstacles in efforts to increase the research productivity of lecturers in the Building Engineering Education Study Program, Universitas Negeri Jakarta based on the perspective of the study program coordinator. This research uses a qualitative descriptive approach using data collection techniques in the form of documentation complete with interviews with the study program coordinator. The research productivity increases in some years, such 2021 and 2023, but there are inconsistent research trends from 2017 to 2024. Some of the plans carried out by the study program to increase lecturer research productivity include the 1 lecturer 1 publication per year program, expanding cooperation and collaboration with national and international universities in research and scientific publications, holding international scientific article publication workshops, initiating collaboration with industry in the field of research and forming a research team of lecturers. The obstacles and challenges faced by the study program include lecturer workload, resources, funding, and research administration burden

Key Dimensions in Smart Cities' Rankings - Towards Enhancing the Quality of Life for Smart Cities’ Inhabitants

Abstract Motivation: Urbanization, demographic trends, globalization, and sustainable development contribute to the emergence of smart cities, which entail the intelligent integration of economy, governance, mobility, environment, daily life, and people. Smart city concept means a solution to support the growth of urban areas. One significant aspect discussed in the context of smart cities is the quality of life for their inhabitants. Smart cities are prevalent worldwide, but there is no universally accepted index for accurate and reliable global rankings. Essential criteria for evaluation include livability, health, technology, mobility and transport, economy, environment, governance, and sustainability. The primary objective of this paper is to address the following questions: How do smart cities enhance the quality of life for their inhabitants? What are the key dimensions and indicators used in smart cities rankings in the context of quality of life? Which cities are considered the smartest globally according to the most prominent rankings, and are there any European cities among them? Aim: The aim of the article is to explore the main dimensions and indicators in smart cities indexes and to present the first three smartest countries based on 2022 rankings. The article answers the question which of the key dimensions of smart cities' rankings are most consistent with the areas of improvement in the quality of life of the inhabitants of these cities. This manuscript may prove valuable for researchers planning to assess the benefits and challenges associated with smart cities.

World-class education for the few: Analysing Japan’s designated national university corporation system policy discourse

This study explores the production, dissemination, and reception of the discourse of educational excellence and internationalisation in Japan’s Designated National University Corporation System. The study frames the policy initiative within the longstanding goals of the Japanese government and demonstrates how the work of Michel Foucault helps uncover the policy’s inherent power dynamics and ideological conflicts. The investigation operationalises Foucault’s theories with a framework to investigate the policy discourse, illuminating the central concern as global competitiveness and an imposition of rigorous criteria for designation. The analysis uncovers a coercive isomorphism, with universities replicating the government’s discourse. Furthermore, the focus on global competitiveness and rankings in the policy comes at the expense of facilitating other forms of internationalisation. More comprehensive reforms are recommended to foster authentic global engagement and inclusivity across a broader base of higher education institutions, rather than focussing on an increasingly thinner strata and the pursuit of global prestige.

Strategic alliances and global competitive actions: Unveiling collaborative pathways in higher education ranking

The escalating competition among higher education institutions in global university rankings necessitates an examination of their actions and reactions within a competitive dynamics framework. Utilising regression panel data, this study scrutinises the initiatives of 100 universities across 22 Asian nations over a decade, drawing from the QS World University Rankings and SciVal databases. Exposure, research intensity, and high-impacted research are identified as drivers of competition escalation. Moreover, the impact of international collaboration and university-industry collaboration on this dynamic is analysed, revealing varied moderating effects. By delving into the influence of international academic collaboration and university-industry collaboration, this research unveils opportunities for adopting a cooperative-competitive strategy among universities to excel in global ranking competitions.

System interoperability and data linkage in the era of health information management: A bibliometric analysis.

Background: Across the world, health data generation is growing exponentially. The continuous rise of new and diversified technology to obtain and handle health data places health information management and governance under pressure. Lack of data linkage and interoperability between systems undermines best efforts to optimise integrated health information technology solutions. Objective: This research aimed to provide a bibliometric overview of the role of interoperability and linkage in health data management and governance. Method: Data were acquired by entering selected search queries into Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science databases and bibliometric data obtained were then imported to Endnote and checked for duplicates. The refined data were exported to Excel, where several levels of filtration were applied to obtain the final sample. These sample data were analysed using Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corporation, Washington, USA), WORDSTAT (Provalis Research, Montreal, Canada) and VOSviewer software (Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands). Results: The literature sample was retrieved from 3799 unique results and consisted of 63 articles, present in 45 different publications, both evaluated by two specific in-house global impact rankings. Through VOSviewer, three main clusters were identified: (i) e-health information stakeholder needs; (ii) e-health information quality assessment; and (iii) e-health information technological governance trends. A residual correlation between interoperability and linkage studies in the sample was also found. Conclusion: Assessing stakeholders' needs is crucial for establishing an efficient and effective health information system. Further and diversified research is needed to assess the integrated placement of interoperability and linkage in health information management and governance. Implications: This research has provided valuable managerial and theoretical contributions to optimise system interoperability and data linkage within health information research and information technology solutions.

(How) do universities listen? Evidence from institutional websites of the world's top universities

Introduction: this study investigates the implementation of organizational listening methods in Higher Education through a comparative analysis of institutional websites from top global universities and leading Lithuanian institutions. Emphasizing the role of these websites as pivotal digital platforms, the research aims to discern the extent to which universities facilitate two-way communication with stakeholders through digital platforms. Methodology: Websites were selected based on world university rankings, encompassing institutions from each continent. Websites were selected based on global university rankings, spanning institutions across continents. Qualitative content analysis employed predefined and emergent categories to evaluate interactivity and organizational listening features on these platforms. Findings reveal consistent stakeholder mapping but significant disparities in communication tools and channels, which impacts real-time, asynchronous, and symmetric engagement effectiveness. Communication structures range from integrated governance roles to fragmented responsibilities, influencing stakeholder accessibility and institutional transparency. Discussion: implications for organizational communication practices are discussed, highlighting strategies to enhance stakeholder engagement via institutional websites. The study underscores the pivotal role of communication management teams in fostering transparency and responsiveness. Conclusions: advocating for leveraging technological advancements, conclusions propose transforming websites into proactive platforms for organizational listening. Recommendations emphasize developing tailored communication strategies to optimize engagement and effectiveness in Higher Education contexts.

UK Manufacturing Slips to 12th in Global Rankings

UK Manufacturing Slips to 12th in Global Rankings

Green campuses as pivots of sustainable development in Egypt

Abstract Sustainable development is a global aim to which Egypt is highly committed. This is evident in various projects and initiatives that aim to direct all activities towards more sustainable patterns and tools. Egyptian higher education institutions are an important partner and tool in enhancing sustainable development. University campuses, as the main anchors for higher education, take part in achieving this goal through developing green campuses that support the overall national sustainable development. This paper examines the presence of Egyptian universities in the global ranking of Green Campuses. It then focuses on two main case studies within the Egyptian context which are the AUC and ASU to compare their progress and identify their future priorities in Green Campus development.

THE POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT AND ITS ROLE IN ATTRACTING FOREIGN INVESTMENT TO IRAQ

This study aims to assess the impact of political stability on foreign direct investment in Iraq. After 2003, the Iraqi government sought to attract foreign investment to address the growing disparity between available resources and increasing financial needs. The goal was to bridge the national resource gap, reduce the balance of payments deficit, and finance public investment to aid in the countrys reconstruction and industrial advancement. To achieve this, Investment Law No. 13 of 2003 was enacted, accompanied by various policies, procedures, guarantees, incentives, and benefits to encourage foreign direct investment in Iraq and support economic development. However, despite these efforts, the inflow of investments did not meet expectations due to persistent political and security instability. This instability led to weak global rankings and deterred both foreign and local investments from Iraq between 2013 and 2022.

Global Ranking of Expertise about Russia

ABSTRACT Academic rankings rooted in bibliometric indicators have proliferated over the past few decades. Despite this trend, there have been few efforts to formulate rankings specifically for interdisciplinary and subdisciplinary areas. This paper introduces the Global Ranking of Expertise about Russia, focusing on organizations ranked by their contribution as a source of impactful knowledge about Russia. The ranking methodology is grounded in the quantity and impact of organizations’ publications within a sample of 29,826 articles spanning the 1990–2020 period. We present the results of an analysis that offers a list of organizations based on both the quantity and impact of their publications.

New robust multi-criteria decision-making framework for thermal insulation of buildings under conflicting stakeholder interests

The choice of thermal insulation technology for existing building retrofit can be a complex multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem characterized by multiple stakeholders with conflicting interests. The conflicting interests of the building owners and the policymakers could negatively influence the adoption of low-carbon energy retrofit measures by building possessors, slowing down the progress toward sustainable development. The investigation of this issue is, therefore, crucial to support more informed decisions and offer policymakers useful insights to develop future economic incentives for energy refurbishment of buildings. Most of the existing MCDM studies on the subject do not emphasize the differences among different stakeholders nor consider the outcomes' robustness. To overcome this gap, this paper integrates multi-stakeholder analyses and robustness assessments to provide broad-spectrum and reliable results. An innovative robust MCDM framework for building thermal insulation under conflicting stakeholder interests is proposed and tested on a real case study building (located in Southern Italy) using building dynamic energy simulation. Several alternatives of thermal insulation are evaluated under environmental, energy, and economic key performance indicators (KPIs). The Analytic Hierarchy Process is used to define criteria weights for conflicting decision-makers representing collectivity (policymakers) and private interests. TOPSIS, VIKOR, WASPAS, and MULTIMOORA methods are integrated to perform initial rankings of the alternatives. A rank similarity analysis is performed to evaluate the consensus between MCDM methods, and an ensemble ranking is obtained for each decision-maker using an approach based on the half-quadratic theory. A Confidence Index and a Trust Level are used to evaluate the agreement among the MCDM approaches, verifying the reliability of the final ensemble ranking. The robustness of the framework is attained by complying with well-established literature guidance. The hybrid MCDM analysis showed that porous materials like expanded clay and expanded perlite lead to better results under the KPIs investigated. The worst performances are attained by vacuum insulation panels and aerogel, mainly due to high values of embodied CO2 emissions and long payback periods. Insights upon the performance of different thermal insulating alternatives are also highlighted by the study and a stakeholder comparative analysis demonstrates that global rankings obtained for the different decision-makers show some similarities, but also important deviations, and a full compromise solution is not achieved.

Multiple Logistic Regression Model for Assessing the Risk Factors of Traffic Accidents: Khon Kaen Model.

Thailand has consistently held the highest global ranking in traffic accidents since 2017, with Khon Kaen displaying the highest mortality rate in the Department of Disease Control Region 7. This study aims to utilize Injury Surveillance (IS) data to identify risk factors associated with emergency room (ER) outcomes at the Emergency Department of Khon Kaen hospital in Khon Kaen Municipality. Data from the Injury Surveillance system's (IS system) database were collected, focusing on severity outcomes, time of events, and risk behaviors from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2021. Data analysis was conducted using the R program, employing the Chi-square or independent T test to compare results and analyze associations between potential risk factors and ER outcomes. Multiple logistic regression (MLR) was used for classification analysis, and a confusion matrix was applied to evaluate the performance of the models. MLR analysis revealed that being male, age, alcohol consumption, and nighttime driving were more likely to increase the probability of severity outcomes. Being male, age, alcohol consumption, and nighttime driving are identified as potential risk factors contributing to the development of severity outcomes following traffic accidents.

Are the best higher education institutions also more sustainable?

Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze the integration of sustainable practices in the strategies and operations of world-class higher education institutions (HEIs) under the theoretical guidance of Max Weber's instrumental and value rationalities. Design/methodology/approach The results of the Quacquarelli-Symonds World University Ranking, Times Higher Education World University Rankings, THE Impact Rankings and GreenMetric World University Ranking rankings from 2019 to 2022 were paired, and the correlation between them was verified. Institutions with simultaneous occurrence in the four rankings in at least one of the years were also classified. A quantitative and qualitative methodology was used to explore how elite HEIs integrate sustainable practices into their operations and strategies, under the theoretical guidance of Max Weber's instrumental and value rationalities. Furthermore, multivariate regression models with supervised data mining techniques were applied, using the SMOReg algorithm on 368 instances with multiple attributes, to predict the numerical value of sustainability in the rankings. Coefficients were assigned to variables to determine their relative importance in predicting rankings. Findings The results of this study suggest that although many HEIs demonstrate a commitment to sustainability, this rarely translates into improvements in traditional rankings, indicating a disconnect between sustainable practices and global academic recognition. Research limitations/implications The research has limitations, including the analysis being restricted to data from specific rankings between 2019 and 2022, which may limit generalization to future editions or rankings. The predictive models used selected data and, therefore, cannot cover the full complexity of metrics from other rankings. Furthermore, internal factors of HEIs were not considered, and the correlations identified do not imply direct causality. The limited sample and potential methodological biases, together with the heterogeneity of the rankings, restrict the generalization of the results. These limitations should be considered in future studies. Practical implications The theoretical contributions of this study include an in-depth understanding of the intersection between academic excellence and environmental and social responsibility. From a management perspective, guidance is provided on integrating sustainability into HEI strategies to enhance visibility and classification in global rankings, while maintaining academic integrity and commitment to sustainability. Social implications This highlights the importance of reassessing academic rankings criteria to include sustainability assessments, thereby encouraging institutions to adopt practices that genuinely contribute to global sustainable development. Originality/value The originality lies in the predictive analysis between these rankings, examining the link between the level of sustainability of an HEI and its classification as a World Class University. Furthermore, it combines theories of rationality with the analysis of sustainability integration in elite HEIs, introducing new analytical perspectives that can influence future educational policies and institutional practices.

Structural integrity assessment of CANDU pressure tubes using Sobol indices for global sensitivity analysis

CANDU11CANDU is a registered trademark of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. reactors are a channel-type design where up to 480 zirconium alloy pressure tubes (PTs) act as the reactor pressure boundary. Fitness-for-service standards such as CSA N285.8 (CSA Group, 2015) have been established to prescribe the requirements of pressure tube evaluations to maintain their integrity throughout their lifetime. Probabilistic leak-before-break (LBB) assessments can be used in evaluations to demonstrate that the likelihood of a flaw growing past the stability point while undetected (or before a safe shutdown can be achieved) is below regulatory limits. The assessments typically require a ranking of model parameters based on their influence. The ranking process traditionally uses expert judgment and local sensitivity analysis methods. There has been recent interest in implementing global methods for LBB assessments as they can manage large numbers of variables and extensive sampling spaces. However, their adoption is hindered by the computational cost of the models involved.The current study proposes a method for performing global sensitivity parameter rankings during probabilistic LBB assessments. The study is the continuation of the CANDU nuclear power plant (NPP) pressure tube (PT) case study in El Bouzidi et al., (2024) where a probabilistic approach was implemented in RAVEN (Rabiti and Alfonsi, 2019) to estimate whether the probability of unstable crack growth in PTs is within acceptable limits. This follow-up work proposes surrogate modeling using a high-dimensional model representation to derive Sobol indices and establish a parameter influence ranking. The methodology is demonstrated in a Monte Carlo simulation campaign of a pressure tube inlet rolled joint. The implemented approach successfully identified and quantified critical parameters of the model while efficiently ranking and quantifying the interactions between input variables.

GRAMP: A gene ranking and model prioritisation framework for building consensus genetic networks

Despite significant recent advancements in computational and statistical methods, different methods have specific strengths and weaknesses in the accurate reconstruction of gene regulatory networks (GRNs), making it difficult to determine the best method for each specific problem. To overcome these challenges, ensemble approaches, which combine the strengths of individual inference methods, are valuable. However, existing ensemble methods for GRN inference lack a sophisticated network aggregation method and generally rely solely on ranking approaches. These ensemble methods have no reliable mechanisms to identify highly performing inference methods specific to a given problem. They therefore tend to aggregate weak methods, diminishing the overall accuracy of the approach. Thus, developing a reliable mechanism to identify the most effective methods for specific problems and prioritize them in consensus network building is important. This paper presents a novel ensemble approach for reconstructing GRNs by integrating previously developed diverse GRN inference approaches. A novel network aggregation method called GRAMP, Gene Ranking And Model Prioritisation framework was developed, taking into consideration both local and global gene ranking and the performance of different inference approaches on a specific network. The proposed ensemble approach demonstrated performance superior to those of other state-of-the-art methods, as evidenced by results from simulated datasets and a real-world gene expression dataset.

A bibliometric analysis on laparoscopic pelvic floor surgery from 1996–2022

IntroductionPelvic organ prolapse is a common condition in middle-aged and older women. Laparoscopic pelvic floor surgery is frequently researched as a treatment for this issue. However, the effectiveness of this procedure has only been the subject of a few studies. MethodsTo quantitatively evaluate and display the relevant literature from the Web of Science database, we set the publication period of the literature from 1996 to 2022 and used VOSviewer and CiteSpace for visual analysis. ResultsLaparoscopic pelvic floor surgery research has increased year-on-year, with 1003 publications identified from 63 countries and published in 210 journals. In the global ranking of studies, the United States was the leader (n = 306; 30.5 %), with the most published authors being Campagna, Giuseppe (n = 17) and Scambia, Giovanni (n = 17). The International urogynecology journal included the most significant articles (n = 173; 17.2 %). Keyword analysis suggests that complications, rectal prolapse, native tissue repair, and warranty may have become hotspots in recent years. ConclusionsThis bibliometric study shows that the depth and breadth of research on pelvic floor laparoscopic surgery have expanded rapidly over the last twenty-five years and that laparoscopic surgery has been recognized by different scholars or countries as an essential modality for the treatment of pelvic floor organ prolapse.