In the latest analysis of the world's top universities published by Times Higher Education (THE), UC Santa Cruz ranked first 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 2014-15, 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 2008 to 2012.
With a citation score of 100, UC Santa Cruz is tied for first place with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Other institutions with high citation scores were Rice University at 99.9 and California Institute of Technology at 99.7.
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."
THE has also ranked UC Santa Cruz 11th among the top 100 universities under 50 years old. UCSC's overall ranking in the THE World University Rankings for 2014-15 was 109th. It is one of eight UC campuses among the top 150 universities worldwide.
In another ranking published recently, the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), UC Santa Cruz is ranked 93rd among the world's best universities and in the top 50 in the United States. Known as the "Shanghai ranking," ARWU is an annual study by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy that looks at more than 1,200 universities in the world and publishes data on what it deems are the top 500.
