ScholarGPS® Blog and News

Featured
By Tanaz Dietz
November 26, 2025

The 2025 ScholarGPS® Top 10 Institutions in Physical Sciences rankings illuminate a uniquely competitive global landscape, with academic excellence distributed across the United Kingdom, the United States, China, and Switzerland. Physical Sciences encompass fields such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, earth sciences, and statistics. The Lifetime Academic rankings are led by the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, reflecting the long-standing research strength of the UK, followed closely by top U.S. institutions including Stanford University, UC Berkeley, MIT, UCLA, UC San Diego, and Caltech. In contrast, the Prior Five Years rankings demonstrate a dramatic surge in research productivity from China, with the University of Science and Technology of China, Nanjing University, Wuhan University, Tsinghua University, and Central South University occupying the majority of top positions. ETH Zurich further represents Europe with consistent high performance across both time periods.

Non-academic research institutions show overwhelming U.S. leadership, with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, NIST, Goddard Space Flight Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the U.S. Geological Survey all securing places in the top ten. Additional global contributions come from the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute for Advanced Study, underscoring the worldwide depth of physical sciences research. Collectively, these rankings highlight ScholarGPS®'s unparalleled capacity to capture both long-term institutional legacy and rapidly emerging research powerhouses, offering a comprehensive and data-driven view of excellence in the Physical Sciences. To explore rankings for other universities, labs, and research organizations, visit the ScholarGPS® Institutional Rankings at https://scholargps.com/institutional-rankings.

2025 ScholarGPS® Rankings
Top 10 Institutions in Physical Sciences
Academic Institutions –
Lifetime
Academic Institutions –
Prior Five Years
Non-Academic
Institutions – Lifetime
1 University of Cambridge
United Kingdom.
1 University of Science and Technology of China
China.
1 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
United States.
2 University of Oxford
United Kingdom.
2 Nanjing University
China.
2 Los Alamos National Laboratory
United States.
3 Stanford University
United States.
3 King Saud University
Saudi Arabia.
3 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
United States.
4 University of California, Berkeley
United States.
4 Wuhan University
China.
4 National Institute of Standards and Technology
United States.
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
United States.
5 Tsinghua University
China.
5 Goddard Space Flight Center
United States.
6 University of California, Los Angeles
United States.
6 Central South University
China.
6 Brookhaven National Laboratory
United States.
7 ETH Zurich
Switzerland.
7 ETH Zurich
Switzerland.
7 International Business Machines Corporation
United States.
8 Harvard University
United States.
8 University of Oxford
United Kingdom.
8 Russian Academy of Sciences
Russia.
9 University of California, San Diego
United States.
9 University of Cambridge
United Kingdom.
9 Institute for Advanced Study
United States.
10 California Institute of Technology
United States.
10 Nankai University
China.
10 United States Geological Survey
United States.
Featured
By Tanaz Dietz
November 21, 2025

The 2025 ScholarGPS® Top 10 Institutions in Public Health rankings reveal a powerful combination of continuity and global breadth across academic and non-academic organizations. Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University lead both Lifetime and Prior Five Years academic rankings, reaffirming their unmatched global influence in public health research and education. U.S. institutions—including the University of Washington, UCSF, Columbia, and the University of Michigan—perform strongly across all categories, while Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Australia make notable contributions through top performers such as the University of Toronto, University of Oxford, Karolinska Institute, Monash University, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Overall, the rankings show that although the United States dominates much of the field, excellence in public health research remains widely distributed across multiple nations.

In the non-academic sector, the National Cancer Institute (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) secure the top two positions, highlighting the critical role of U.S. federal health agencies in driving global public health innovation. Additional leading institutions—including INSERM in France, Brigham and Women's Hospital, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH), Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare—demonstrate the diverse ecosystem contributing to advancements in epidemiology, population health, and preventive medicine. Collectively, these rankings showcase ScholarGPS®'s comprehensive and data-driven approach to evaluating institutional excellence in Public Health. To explore rankings for other universities, hospitals, and research centers, visit the ScholarGPS® Institutional Rankings at https://scholargps.com/institutional-rankings.

2025 ScholarGPS® Rankings
Top 10 Institutions in Public Health
Academic Institutions –
Lifetime
Academic Institutions –
Prior Five Years
Non-Academic
Institutions – Lifetime
1 Harvard University
United States.
1 Harvard University
United States.
1 National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
United States.
2 Johns Hopkins University
United States.
2 Johns Hopkins University
United States.
2 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
United States.
3 University of Washington
United States.
3 London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
United Kingdom.
3 Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale
France.
4 University of Toronto
Canada.
4 University of Toronto
Canada.
4 Brigham and Women's Hospital
United States.
5 University of Oxford
United Kingdom.
5 Monash University
Australia.
5 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health
United States.
6 Karolinska Institute
Sweden.
6 University of Sydney
Australia.
6 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
United States.
7 University of California, San Francisco
United States.
7 University of Oxford
United Kingdom.
7 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
United States.
8 Columbia University
United States.
8 Karolinska Institute
Sweden.
8 National Institute for Health and Welfare
Finland.
9 London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
United Kingdom.
9 Columbia University
United States.
9 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
United States.
10 University of Michigan
United States.
10 Imperial College London
United Kingdom.
10 Food and Drug Administration
United States.
Featured
By Tanaz Dietz
November 5, 2025

The 2025 ScholarGPS® Life Sciences rankings highlight the global institutions that consistently lead across the full spectrum of life-science research—from molecular and cellular biology to biochemistry , environmental science, ecology, neuroscience, biotechnology, and biomedical sciences. Harvard University maintains its commanding position in both the Lifetime and Prior Five Years categories, reflecting its long-term strength and recent high-impact contributions. Close behind, Stanford University, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge underscore a powerful U.S.-U.K. presence, while University College London, Karolinska Institute, and the University of California system further solidify the depth and diversity of top-tier research in the field. The Prior Five Years category also showcases dynamic movement, with institutions such as King Saud University, Ghent University, and Hunan University emerging as rapidly growing contributors to global life-science scholarship.

In the Non-Academic Institutions - Lifetime category, the landscape remains internationally competitive. France's INSERM ranks first, followed by the U.S. National Cancer Institute and Pasteur Institute, demonstrating the major role that national research agencies and independent institutes play across the biological and life sciences. Additional U.S. leaders—such as NIAID, Scripps Research, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Massachusetts General Hospital—reinforce the country's dominant contributions to a broad range of life-science disciplines. Together, the 2025 rankings reveal a vibrant, evolving global ecosystem in which established institutions continue to excel while rising universities and research centers rapidly expand their impact across the life sciences.

For deeper insights and to explore rankings across all fields and institutions, visit:🔗 https://scholargps.com/institutional-rankings

2025 ScholarGPS® Rankings
Top 10 Institutions in Life Sciences
Academic Institutions –
Lifetime
Academic Institutions –
Prior Five Years
Non-Academic
Institutions – Lifetime
1 Harvard University
United States.
1 Harvard University
United States.
1 Institut National de la Santé
et de la Recherche Médicale
France.
2 Stanford University
United States.
2 University of Oxford
United Kingdom.
2 National Cancer Institute,
National Institutes of Health
United States.
3 University of Oxford
United Kingdom.
3 King Saud University
Saudi Arabia.
3 Pasteur Institute
France.
4 University of Cambridge
United Kingdom.
4 Ghent University
Belgium.
4 National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases,
National Institutes of Health
United States.
5 University College London
United Kingdom.
5 Karolinska Institute
Sweden.
5 Scripps Research
United States.
6 University of California, Los Angeles
United States.
6 Stanford University
United States.
6 Memorial Sloan Kettering
Cancer Center
United States.
7 Karolinska Institute
Sweden.
7 Hunan University
China.
7 Francis Crick Institute
United Kingdom.
8 Cornell University
United States.
8 University of Pennsylvania
United States.
8 Salk Institute for Biological Studies
United States.
9 University of California, Berkeley
United States.
9 University of Cambridge
United Kingdom.
9 Massachusetts General Hospital
United States.
10 Duke University
United States.
10 University of Queensland
Australia.
10 National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute,
National Institutes of Health
United States.
Featured
By Tanaz Dietz
October 30, 2025

The 2025 ScholarGPS® Engineering rankings reveal a striking contrast between long-established global leaders and the rapidly rising institutions shaping the future of the field. In the Lifetime category, the United States maintains a dominant presence, with MIT, Stanford, Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, and the University of Michigan securing the top positions. These institutions continue to anchor global engineering excellence through decades of high-impact research, innovative contributions, and strong academic ecosystems. Singapore's leading universities—Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore—also hold prominent positions, reinforcing their global reputation for engineering strength.

However, the Prior Five Years rankings present a dramatically different picture, highlighting China's remarkable rise. Tsinghua University leads the 2025 results, followed closely by Harbin Institute of Technology, Tianjin University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University—reflecting the country's major investments and rapid growth in engineering innovation. Non-academic institutions show similar patterns: Microsoft, IBM, Google, major U.S. national laboratories, and top Asian research centers dominate the Lifetime rankings, underscoring the critical role of industry and government research in advancing engineering. Together, the 2025 results underscore a global landscape defined by long-term U.S. leadership, China's accelerating ascent, and an increasingly competitive and diversified ecosystem of engineering excellence worldwide. To explore engineering rankings across all institutions, visit: https://scholargps.com/institutional-rankings.

2025 ScholarGPS® Rankings
Top 10 Institutions in Engineering
Academic Institutions –
Lifetime
Academic Institutions –
Prior Five Years
Non-Academic
Institutions – Lifetime
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
United States.
1 Tsinghua University
China.
1 Microsoft Corporation
United States.
2 Stanford University
United States.
2 Harbin Institute of Technology
China.
2 International Business Machines Corporation
United States.
3 Georgia Institute of Technology
United States.
3 Tianjin University
China.
3 Google, Inc.
United States.
4 University of California, Berkeley
United States.
4 Xi'an Jiaotong University
China.
4 National Institute for Materials Science
Japan.
5 University of Michigan
United States.
5 Shanghai Jiao Tong University
China.
5 Oak Ridge National Laboratory
United States.
6 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
United States.
6 University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
China.
6 Samsung
South Korea.
7 University of Texas at Austin
United States.
7 Zhejiang University
China.
7 National Institute of Standards and Technology
United States.
8 Purdue University
United States.
8 Nanyang Technological University
Singapore.
8 Argonne National Laboratory
United States.
9 Nanyang Technological University
Singapore.
9 City University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong.
9 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
United States.
10 National University of Singapore
Singapore.
10 National University of Singapore
Singapore.
10 Qualcomm Incorporated
United States.
Featured
By Tanaz Dietz
October 10, 2025

The 2025 ScholarGPS® Top 10 Institutions in Medicine rankings highlight the continuing dominance of leading academic and medical research powerhouses across three evaluation periods: Lifetime Academic, Prior Five Years Academic, and Lifetime Non-Academic. Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University reaffirm their long-standing global leadership, consistently securing top positions across both lifetime and recent-performance categories. Other major U.S. institutions—including UCSF, Stanford, UCLA, Michigan, and the University of Pennsylvania—maintain their strong presence, while the University of Toronto and University College London represent the highest-ranked contributors outside the United States. Overall, the results reveal overwhelming U.S. dominance in medical research, with only a handful of positions occupied by Canada, the United Kingdom, and France.

In the non-academic sector, Mayo Clinic leads decisively, followed by Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital—emphasizing the critical role of clinical research institutions in advancing global medicine. Cleveland Clinic, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Boston Children's Hospital further highlight the exceptional research output of specialized medical centers. Collectively, these rankings demonstrate ScholarGPS®'s unmatched ability to capture both academic and clinical contributions at scale, offering the most comprehensive and data-driven assessment of institutional excellence in medicine worldwide. To explore how other universities, hospitals, and research centers rank in Medicine, visit the ScholarGPS® Institutional Rankings at https://scholargps.com/institutional-rankings.

2025 ScholarGPS® Rankings
Top 10 Institutions in Medicine
Academic Institutions –
Lifetime
Academic Institutions –
Prior Five Years
Non-Academic
Institutions – Lifetime
1 Harvard University
United States.
1 Johns Hopkins University
United States.
1 Mayo Clinic
United States.
2 Johns Hopkins University
United States.
2 Harvard University
United States.
2 Massachusetts General Hospital
United States.
3 University of California, San Francisco
United States.
3 Stanford University
United States.
3 Brigham and Women's Hospital
United States.
4 Stanford University
United States.
4 University of Toronto
Canada.
4 Institut National de la Santé
et de la Recherche Médicale
France.
5 University of California, Los Angeles
United States.
5 University of California, San Francisco
United States.
5 Cleveland Clinic
United States.
6 University of Michigan
United States.
6 University of Michigan
United States.
6 Memorial Sloan Kettering
Cancer Center
United States.
7 University of Toronto
Canada.
7 University of Pennsylvania
United States.
7 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
United States.
8 University of Washington
United States.
8 University of Texas
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
United States.
8 Boston Children's Hospital
United States.
9 University of Pennsylvania
United States.
9 Yale University
United States.
9 National Cancer Institute,
National Institutes of Health
United States.
10 Yale University
United States.
10 University College London
United Kingdom.
10 Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center
United States.
Featured
October 9, 2025

We are pleased to announce the release of the 2025 ScholarGPS® Scholar, Institutional, and Country Rankings!

This year's comprehensive quantitative rankings are derived from the ScholarGPS® database, encompassing over 30 million Scholar Profiles and 120,000 Institutional Profiles across 14 Fields, 177 Disciplines, and more than 350,000 Specialties, evaluated over both lifetime and five-year periods. The 2025 rankings for all scholars are now available on their individual profiles.

To explore the various ranking categories, please visit:

These rankings showcase the most influential scholars, leading research institutions, and highly cited publications across all academic domains, providing valuable insights into global research excellence over both long-term (lifetime) and recent (five-year) periods.

ScholarGPS® recognizes two categories of scholarly excellence:

  • Highly Ranked Scholars™ — eminent scholars whose ScholarGPS® Rank places them among the top 0.05% globally.
  • Top Scholars — researchers whose scholarly contributions rank them within the top 0.5% of all scholars worldwide.

We invite you to explore the full set of 2025 ScholarGPS® Rankings and celebrate the exceptional scholars and institutions shaping the future of research and innovation.

Featured
September 16, 2025

We're thrilled to announce a major milestone for ScholarGPS® — introducing an advanced AI-driven search experience that revolutionizes the way users explore scholars, institutions, and publications.

ScholarGPS® AI is the only academic analytics platform and search engine that lets users ask natural-language questions spanning scholars, institutions, and publications across all fields, disciplines, and specialties—instantly delivering ranked, data-driven results. Unlike other AI tools, ScholarGPS® uniquely combines powerful AI search with comprehensive global rankings and evaluation of scholarly productivity and impact for both scholars and institutions.

Users can now seamlessly switch between Classic Search and ScholarGPS AI directly above the main search box on the homepage. Instantly explore scholar and institutional profiles, rankings, and publications — or combine them all — simply by asking natural-language questions through ScholarGPS AI, such as:

  • Which scholars at UCLA are ranked highest in Mathematics?
  • Who are the scholars in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan with more than 200 publications and an h-index above 70?
  • Who are the scholars in physics in France with more than 10,000 citations and an h index greater than 80?
  • Compare profiles of John B. Goodenough and Steven Weinberg?
  • What scholars in Engineering share the name Gang Chen?
  • Who are the active top scholars in cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic?
  • What are the top institutions in cardiology in United States?
  • How does the United States ranking in medicine compare to China's ranking in medicine?
  • What publications are jointly authored by Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman?
  • How do you compare political science programs at Harvard and Yale based on their lifetime performance and their performance over the prior 5 years?
  • Who are the top scientists in polymer in Japan?
  • Who are scholars in political science with expertise in democracy?
  • What are the most recent publications in dermatology at John Hopkins University?
  • How many publications have been produced in data mining at Stanford in last 5 years?
  • What are the most cited publications in turbulence at Stanford?
  • Compare the rankings of the University of Arizona and Arizona State University in various fields?
  • What Disciplines generate the most publications?

ScholarGPS AI transforms curiosity into actionable insights, unlocking the full depth of the ScholarGPS® database with unmatched speed, accuracy, and intelligence. Whether you prefer traditional keyword searches or conversational queries, ScholarGPS® delivers the most comprehensive and intuitive academic search experience available today.

Featured
September 11, 2025

ScholarGPS is pleased to announce the launch of a new user-friendly interface designed specifically for phone applications. The platform now automatically adapts when accessed from a mobile device, ensuring a seamless experience for scholars on the move.

While the desktop version remains the preferred environment to fully utilize the breadth of ScholarGPS's advanced features and analytics, the new mobile interface provides convenient access to rankings, scholar and institutional profiles, and insights anytime, anywhere.

This enhancement reflects our ongoing commitment to making ScholarGPS more accessible and responsive to the needs of the global scholarly community.

Featured
July 22, 2025

Data from ScholarGPS® ranking platform are used to reveal unique scholarly trends including the impact and influence of Mechanical Engineering (ME) and Heat Transfer research. Publication and citation histories for both ME and Heat Transfer are presented for 1970-2023. A breakdown of publications is provided such as the percentage of ME publications that deal with Heat Transfer, and the percentage of Heat Transfer publications authored by ME scholars. Based on the productivity (archival publications), impact (citations), and quality (h-index) of individual scholars, the influence of countries, in both ME and Heat Transfer, is reported. Countries with growing, decreasing, and emerging influence in the last five years are identified. Top-ranked scholars and academic (and, separately, nonacademic) institutions are listed for both ME and Heat Transfer. Based on their lifetime work, the world's Top 20 Highly Ranked Scholars™ (HRS) in both ME and Heat Transfer are identified. In general, it is found that the U.S. and Canada, along with other developed nations, have suffered significant declines in their influence in both ME and Heat Transfer research. In contrast, China, India, Iran, and other developing countries have increased their scholarly influence in both ME and Heat Transfer. University rankings follow similar trends. The methodologies used to identify the preceding trends are described in detail, so that studies of any of the 14 Fields, 177 Disciplines, and 350,000 Specialties covered by ScholarGPS can be conducted by other individuals and organizations.

Scholarly Trends and Rankings in Mechanical Engineering and Heat Transfer

Featured
April 29, 2025

ScholarGPS is proud to announce two groundbreaking features—Country Profiles and Country Rankings—that offer unprecedented insights into global scholarly performance. To our knowledge, our Country Rankings are the only comprehensive, directly quantitative system that spans every level of analysis: overall, by field, by discipline, and by specialty.
These rankings are based on the quality and quantity of active scholars in each country. We assess productivity (number of publications), impact (citations), and scholarly excellence (h-index), drawing from each scholar’s lifetime or recent five-year contributions. All data are carefully normalized by author count and exclude self-citations, ensuring a fair and accurate comparison.

Explore these new features directly from our homepage:

You can also view sample visualizations across a wide range of fields, disciplines, and specialties using the link below.

Rankings by Country: Overall (All Fields): Top 25

Rankings by Country: Medicine: Top 25
Rankings by Country: Engineering: Top 25
Rankings by Country: Life Sciences: Top 25
Rankings by Country: Agriculture: Top 25

Rankings by Country: Cardiology: Top 25
Rankings by Country: Computer Science: Top 25
Rankings by Country: Biology and Biological Sciences: Top 25
Rankings by Country: Animal Sciences: Top 20

Rankings by Country: Cancer: Top 25
Rankings by Country: Artificial Intelligence: Top 25
Rankings by Country: Genomics: Top 25
Rankings by Country: Biotechnology: Top 25

Our latest data reveal significant shifts in global academic rankings. While the United States and several European countries have seen their long-standing leadership decline—sometimes dramatically—emerging research powerhouses like China, India, South Korea, Australia, and Iran have surged forward, reflecting a dynamic transformation in the global scholarly landscape.

Featured
February 16, 2025

ScholarGPS is proud to announce the release of its 2024 rankings, recognizing top-performing scholars and institutions across the globe. The comprehensive rankings span all academic levels and include evaluations across multiple tiers—overall (all fields), 14 broad fields (such as Medicine, Engineering, and Humanities), 177 academic disciplines (including Surgery, Computer Science, and History), and more than 350,000 specialized research areas (such as Cancer, Artificial Intelligence, and Ethics). The 2024 rankings are based on two evaluation periods: lifetime achievement and scholarly performance over the past five years. This dual approach offers a well-rounded view of scholarly impact and institutional excellence.
In addition, rankings from previous years—2022 and 2023 Highly Ranked Scholars and Institutional Rankings—are archived and easily accessible on the ScholarGPS platform, providing valuable insights and continuity for scholars, institutions, and academic leaders.

Featured
January 27, 2025

This study provides the first specific evidence that ScholarGPS Highly Ranked Scholars come from a wide range of diverse academic institutions, including both elite and non-elite universities, as well as governmental research institutions and the private sector. The ScholarGPS system uniquely identifies Highly Ranked Scholars, representing the top 0.05% among more than 30 million individuals across 14 fields, 177 disciplines, and over 350,000 specialties. Additionally, we explain how the ScholarGPS methodology minimizes the potential for ranking manipulation, both for scholars and institutions.

The Diversity of ScholarGPS Highly Ranked Scholars

Featured
October 13, 2024

We're thrilled to announce the official launch of our revolutionary scholarly analytics platform! Using cutting-edge AI and data science, ScholarGPS® transforms the way scholar and institutional rankings are analyzed and presented. Our platform brings deeper insights, accuracy, and transparency, empowering scholars and institutions worldwide. Stay ahead with ScholarGPS®!

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241009634054/en/ScholarGPS%C2%AE-Launches-Scholarly-Analytics-Platform-Revolutionizing-Scholar-and-Institutional-Rankings-Using-AI-and-Data-Science

Featured
June 16, 2024

A journal article linked below presents the first quantitative rankings of 120,000 institutions and their programs, based on the individual rankings of approximately 30 million scholars. These rankings are determined by scholar productivity, impact, and quality. The ScholarGPS database used for this study ranks institutions in the following categories: (i) all Fields, (ii) 14 individual Fields, (iii) 177 Disciplines, and (iv) approximately 350,000 unique Specialties.

Quantitative Rankings of Academic Institutions

Featured
February 5, 2024

An interesting journal article linked below provides the first analysis using the ScholarGPS database of the number and country distribution of Highly Ranked Scholars. This analysis covers a universe of over 30 million scholars from more than 200 countries across various fields, disciplines, and specialties. The scholarly contributions of Highly Ranked Scholars position these eminent individuals within the top 0.05% of all scholars worldwide.

Highly-Ranked Scholars and the influence of country

Featured
October 05, 2023

ScholarGPS provides the first quantitative institutional rankings in all Fields ("Overall"), in each of 14 broad Fields (such as Medicine, Engineering, or Humanities), in 177 Disciplines (such as Surgery, Computer Science, or History), as well as in over 350,000 unique Specialties (such as Cancer, Artificial Intelligence, or Ethics). ScholarGPS institutional rankings are developed based on active scholars on both a Lifetime basis ("Lifetime") and on the basis of scholarly work produced over a Five Year interval (in this case, January 2017-December 2021). See Ranking Terminology and Methodology for details of the institution ranking methodology. Access to both academic and non-academic institutional and program rankings is now available for free at ScholarGPS Institutional Rankings.

One significant insight obtained from the institutional rankings of over 5,600 institutions is the notable shift in rankings across various categories relative to both time intervals (Lifetime/Five Years).

Below, we identify the Top 20 academic institutions in the world relative to their Overall performance (all Fields), and for the two Fields having the largest numbers of scholars i.e., (i) Medicine and (ii) Engineering. By generating and comparing lists for both the Top 20 Lifetime and Top 20 Five Year academic institutions, we can observe how the rankings have changed relative to these two time intervals, and how the extent of the changes can vary from Field-to-Field.

The Top 20 institutions for All Fields (Overall) are shown in Fig. 1. Harvard University and Stanford University occupy the top two positions in both the Lifetime and Five Year lists. Most of the institutions identified in the figure are ranked among the Top 20 in both lists. Five U.S. institutions which are in the Top 20 Lifetime list do not appear in the Top 20 Five Year list. Where we might have expected to see these five institutions in the Five Year list, we see instead the University of British Columbia, the University of Melbourne, and Imperial College (London), none of whom make the Top 20 Lifetime list. But more impressive is the ascent of two Chinese universities, Tsinghua University (LIfetime rank: 128) and Zhejiang University (Lifetime rank: 190) into the Top 20 Five Year list at Five Year ranks of 8 and 19, respectively.

Fig. 1. Top 20 academic institutions for All Fields (Overall) and their rankings on Lifetime [R∞] and Five Year [R5] bases. Institutions that appear in the Top 20 on both lists and have ascended in rank, R5 < R∞, are identified with red underlines. In contrast, Top 20 institutions that have dropped in the rankings with R5 > R∞ ≥ 21 have green underlines. Institutions that have fallen from the Top 20 in the Five Years, R5 ≥ 21, have blue underlines. Institutions that have entered the Top 20 in the Five Years, R∞ ≥ 21, have purple underlines. Institutions with R5 = R∞ are shown with brown underlines.

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Featured
October 05, 2023

Highly Ranked Scholars™ (HRS) by ScholarGPS are exceptional researchers and the most productive authors (by number of publications) whose works are of profound impact (by total citations) and of the utmost quality (h-index). HRS are in the top 0.05 percent of all scholars evaluated at the levels of all Fields ("Overall"), or across 14 broad Fields (such as Medicine, Engineering, or Humanities), 177 Disciplines (such as Surgery, Computer Science, or History), or even over 350,000 highly focused Specialties (such as Cancer, Artificial Intelligence, or Ethics) in which the scholars are active. See Ranking Terminology and Methodology for details of the scholar ranking methodology. ScholarGPS provides free access to all HRS in all levels by country/region among over 30 million scholars from 120,000 institutions in over 200 countries via the link Highly Ranked Scholars™.

Here, we report the numbers of HRS in the top 10 countries/regions who are the most highly ranked over all Fields (Overall), or who are associated with the two Fields having the most scholars i.e., (i) Medicine and (ii) Engineering. We examine the number of HRS with respect to two kinds of time intervals: the interval spanning a scholar's Lifetime of work ("Lifetime"), and a scholar's output in the specific time period January 2017-December 2021 ("Five Year"). The HRS criteria described above is applied to the universe of scholars with respect to those time intervals to determine HRS status.

The 10 countries/regions that were found to have the largest numbers of HRS over all Fields (Overall) on either the Five Year or Lifetime basis are identified in Fig. 1. As is evident, the U.S. and Canada, along with various countries in Europe and Japan have fewer HRS over the Five Year interval than over the Lifetime interval, while China and Hong Kong, India, and Iran are among the top 10 countries with the most HRS (Lifetime) who also show large increases in their HRS numbers in the Five Year interval. Australia has little change in its number of HRS.

Fig. 1. Countries/regions with the largest numbers of Highly Ranked Scholars™ (Lifetime and Five Years) for All Fields (Overall). Numbers are shown for the top 10 countries/regions of either category (Five Years, N5, or Lifetime, N∞). Countries/regions are shown in order of decreasing N5 + N∞.

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