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I have doubts about which of the university rankings is more reliable in terms of academic reputation, because there are notable differences in ranking for the same universities across different portals.

For example, if I consider a university X, I will find the following results:

a) QS World University Rankings (QS): no results

b) Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), result: 601-700 Note: Here I am confused, its rank is 601 or 700?

c) Times Higher Education (THE Ranking), result: 801-1000; the same as before, its ranking is 801 or 1000?

d) Scimago Institutions Rankings (SIR), result: 669.

so which rank should I consider?

Thanks

Sursula
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Layla
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  • I think the ranges mean that the ranking of university X is anywhere between 601 and 700 or 801 and 1000 respectively. They just don't state the exact rank. – Sursula Feb 09 '22 at 07:10
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    In order to answer this question without being self-referential one first needs a definition of reputation and a way to measure it that do not directly rely on one of those rankings. What definition and what method of measurement do you have in mind? – Jochen Glueck Feb 09 '22 at 07:37
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    To rephrase @JochenGlueck: what exactly is your goal, what do you want to do with this? – MiG Feb 09 '22 at 08:45
  • In view of the comment to my answer: are you asking which ranking is most highly regarded, or which ranking best reflects a university's academic reputation? – Allure Feb 09 '22 at 12:05
  • Do you really need to choose? Why would you not consider ALL the data you can get (rankings and otherwise) when making a decision? – Scott Seidman Feb 09 '22 at 14:52
  • thank you @JochenGlueck I was thinking about academic production like quantity of papers published over the year, academic production per researcher and impact of their publications – Layla Feb 09 '22 at 19:58

2 Answers2

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In short: none.

In long: really none of them. Academic reputation is known to the practitioner of a specific field, it is very qualitative and there are no metrics, because it is limited to three categories:

  • departments in the top 20 universities;
  • good departments in some other universities;
  • unknown departments in unknown universities

and you will get it by simply looking at which affiliation had the people who got prizes from conferences and international research associations in the last 5 years.

If you come from an unknown department of an unknown university, it does not matter if the ranking of the university is 50,500,5000, it will be simply unknown.

EarlGrey
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  • I'm downvoting because this answer is provably incorrect. Academic reputation is known to the practitioner of a specific field, it is very qualitative and there are no metrics is exactly how the THE reputation rankings are compiled. – Allure Feb 09 '22 at 11:58
  • I disagree that there is no difference between 50 and 5000. If people think that University X is the 50th best in the world, a lot of people will apply there and they will get better students. Also top 100 universities in most rankings are usually well-known, respected universities. That said, I agree that there is not much difference between 600 and 1000 as in the OP's case. – Kimball Feb 09 '22 at 13:23
  • @Kimball Let's say you are coming from the Physics department from a very well known Business School: you will find someone giving credit to your work (mostly people not knowing anything about physics, but people having influence/money/power and any combination of the three), whatever you do, because you are a physicist from well-known university. On the other hand, if you are coming from the unknown department of Electronic engineer of the Hanoi University, it is most likely that only other engineers capable of judging your work will give you time/interest. – EarlGrey Feb 10 '22 at 09:34
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    @Allure if you ask all the people in the world "what is your preferred color" and then do a ranking out of their answers, you may think about calculating a huge array of statistical values on them, but it is still a qualitative statistic. – EarlGrey Feb 10 '22 at 09:39
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If you are looking specifically at academic reputation then the best ranking is the THE World Reputation Rankings, which is based solely on reputation. The next-best ranking is the QS ranking, because it gives a 40% weighting to "academic peer review" (see the methodology).

Allure
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