Severe language effect in university rankings: particularly Germany and France are wronged in citation-based rankings

Author(s):
Raan, A.F.J. van (0000-0001-8980-5937); Leeuwen, T. N. van; Visser, M.S.
Published
2011
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor

Abstract

We applied a set of standard bibliometric indicators to monitor the scientific

state-of-arte of 500 universities worldwide and constructed a ranking on the basis of these

indicators (Leiden Ranking 2010). We find a dramatic and hitherto largely underestimated

language effect in the bibliometric, citation-based measurements of research performance when comparing the ranking based on all Web of Science (WoS) covered publications and on only English WoS covered publications, particularly for Germany and France.

Bibliometric analysisUniversity rankingsLanguage of publication
Date issued
2011-04-13
Language
English
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Is part of
Scientometrics (2011), Vol. 88, p. 495-498
hdl
1887/3763814
doi
10.1007/s11192-011-0382-1