Palacký University Scores in Another International Ranking
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Palacký University has confirmed its dominant position among Czech universities in its number of important scientific publications. In the international ranking CWTS Leiden Ranking 2015, which measures the scientific performance of 750 major universities worldwide, UP outperformed Masaryk University in Brno as well as Prague’s Charles University in citation impact. Olomouc also excels in the number and the proportion of publications that have been co-authored by researchers from two or more countries or with one or more commercial/industrial partners.
“I am pleased that Palacký University keeps frequently appearing in the international rankings, increasingly standing out in the Czech, Central European, and European contexts as a research institution with immense scientific potential,” Rector Jaroslav Miller said.
Physical Sciences in the Top Ten
Palacký University lagged behind the two other Czech representatives in the total publication output. It surpassed them however in the ranking that measures the proportion of the publications of a university that are highly cited in scientific journals. The oldest Moravian university was ranked number 260 in Europe and number 597 in the world in the category of the number and the proportion of a university’s publications that are in the top 10% most frequently cited. It left Masaryk University four places behind in the European context (number 652 globally), while Charles University occupied European position number 266 (no. 654 worldwide) according to this indicator. The best score was achieved by Olomouc experts in Physical Sciences and Engineering – Palacký University leaped to position number 201 in Europe and number 436 in the world. UP also outdid the universities in Brno and Prague in the field of Life and Earth Sciences as well as in Biomedical and Health Sciences.
Doing well in the absolute top
Palacký University also surpassed the above-mentioned Czech universities in the ranking measuring the number and the proportion of publications that are in the top 1% most frequently cited publications in the same field, placing at number 231 in Europe and number 504 in the world. Publications in Mathematics and Information Sciences were ranked even higher, at number 24 in Europe and 79 in the world.
The international ranking provided by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University, the Netherlands, is based on Web of Science indexed publications only. They select journals upon their own criteria; for instance, they only include journals written in English and those with higher citation impact. “They utilise similar data as other rankings, but with a different methodology. The placing of universities in this ranking is based on bibliometric data analysis only; unlike other international rankings, factors such as the reputation of universities and the evaluation of the quality of provided education are not included,” Zuzana Polanská from the UP Strategy Support Office clarified.
Collaboration with other countries and commercial partners
An important part of the rankings is the evaluation of publication output made in collaboration with other institutions, with foreign institutions, and with commercial/industrial partners. In this aspect, Olomouc shared second and third position among Czech universities. However, in the field of Life and Earth Sciences, its publications made in collaboration with foreign and commercial/industrial partners scored the best out of the top three Czech universities. A major achievement has been made in the category of publications made with international collaboration in Physical Sciences and Engineering – UP ranked number 66 in the world and number 56 in Europe.
The highest-ranked were two American universities: MIT was number one, followed by Harvard University and Stanford University. The rankings were based on the publication output listed in the Web of Science in the period 2010–2013. Palacký University had a total of 1155 ranked publications in the period, whereas the considerably larger Charles University had 4883 publications.
Note: The overall number of evaluated universities varies depending on the selected region and field.
