In the latest analysis of the world's top universities published by Times Higher Education (THE), UC Santa Cruz ranked second in research influence as measured by the number of times its faculty's published work is cited by scholars around the world.
Published as part of the THE World University Rankings 2013-14, the analysis, conducted by Thomson Reuters, measured overall research influence based on the average number of citations per paper, using a database of more than 50 million citations to 6 million journal articles published over five years, from 2007 to 2011.
With a citation score of 99.9, UC Santa Cruz has the same score as Rice University and is surpassed only by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a score of 100. Other institutions with high citation scores were the California Institute of Technology at 99.8 and Princeton University at 99.7. UCSC's score of 99.9 is unchanged from the previous year's rankings.
In describing their methodology, THE editors called the evaluation of research influence their "flagship" indicator. As explained on the web site for the World University Rankings, "it is the single most influential of the 13 indicators, and looks at the role of universities in spreading new knowledge and ideas."
UCSC's overall ranking in the THE World University Rankings for 2013-14 was 136th. It is one of eight UC campuses among the top 200 universities worldwide.
In the overall rankings by subject, UC Santa Cruz ranked 52nd in the physical sciences and 57th in life sciences worldwide.
