UCSB Ranked No. 7 in Leiden Ranking of World's Top 500 Universities

The Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands has ranked UC Santa Barbara number 7 on its annual list of the top 500 major universities in the world. The Leiden Ranking is based on publications in Thomson Reuters' Web of Science database from 2005-2009.

Only six universities ranked higher than UCSB, including M.I.T, Princeton, Harvard, Rice, Stanford, and Caltech. UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco were ranked 8 and 10, respectively. Other UC campuses in the top 40 were UC San Diego at number 19, UCLA at number 20, UC Santa Cruz at number 21, UC Riverside at number 29, and UC Irvine at number 37.

"UC Santa Barbara's faculty and researchers are advancing the frontiers of knowledge, and we are very proud that these contributions have been recognized with the number 7 ranking among the top 500 world universities in the four-year study by Leiden University in the Netherlands," said Chancellor Henry T. Yang. "The high citation rate of our faculty's publications in prestigious journals is a testament to the far-reaching impact of the work taking place on our campus."

According to the Center for Science and Technology Studies, when compared with other university rankings, the Leiden Ranking offers more advanced indicators of scientific impact and collaboration, and uses a much more transparent methodology. In addition, the Leiden Ranking does not rely on subjective data obtained from reputational surveys or on data provided by the universities themselves.

The ranking measures the scientific impact of universities, and of their contributions to scientific collaboration. Only publications in the sciences and social sciences are included. Publications in the arts and humanities are excluded because in these areas the bibliometric indicators of the Leiden Ranking do not offer sufficient accuracy. Bibliometrics is a set of methods used to quantitatively analyze scientific and technological literature.

The Centre for Science and Technology Studies investigates the development of science, technology, and science-related innovation, often by using large-scale databases of scientific publications and patents. The center is a leading provider of science and technology indicators and of performance and benchmark studies of scientific groups and institutes, including bibliometric mapping and network analysis of science.

A full list of the 2011/12 Leiden Ranking is available at https://www.leidenranking.com/ranking/20112012.

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