The World University Research Rankings 2020 is a novel methodology designed to evaluate research multi-disciplinarity, complemented by indicators to gauge research impact and research collaborative-ness. Together, these three key aspects make up the composite index for the world university research rankings methodology.
The aim of this evidence-based new index is to inform universities objectively on their world research standing; provide insights into their relative strengths and weaknesses; raise awareness and promote collaborative and multi-disciplinary research. The indicators that were chosen reflect this aspirational goal to help universities better understand how they can seize opportunities in this increasingly complex and inter-connected world, and relook at how universities' research excellence can be assessed holistically with respect to how they are able to harness the synergies created from bringing together multi-disciplinary and collaborative teams to sustain and elevate research impact.
This new index is designed through a novel and fresh methodology from the existing ones (i.e. QS, THE, ARWU) to evaluate the three key components - research multi-disciplinarity, research impact, and research collaborative-ness. Together, these form a new and differentiated composite index under this research assessment framework for universities. Data is derived objectively based on OECD's schema in Web of Science's InCites through a 10-year period from 2009 to 2018.