In July’s Webometrics Ranking of Universities, ITMO University has held its own and secured its position among the Russian universities coming sixth place. In their comprehensive assessment of universities’ internet resources, 4ICU considers four criteria, each with a particular weighting, which evaluates each institution based on their standing in the internet. In the last ranking, the calculation methodology was changed for several criteria; this time, the improvements concern a change in weight of each of the indicators. The Presence indicator, which denotes the total number of Google-indexed web pages hosted on a university’s main domain, lost in its importance to the overall ranking: from 10% to 5%. The Openness indicator, denoting a university’s number of citations according to Google Scholar, remains at 10%. However, the Excellence indicator, which corresponds to the number of papers among the top 10% most cited in 26 disciplines (according to Scimago), has gained in importance, rising from 30% to 35%. The most influential indicator, Visibility (link mass) still equals 50%.
Six months after the “winter” rankings were published, ITMO University is showing further improvement in three criteria out of four. Its Presence indicator has increased by 331 points (a total of 626), Openness by 329 (a total of 849) and Excellence by 170 points for a total of 1,146. The latter is due to the ranking system moving its five-year period for citation evaluation from 2010-2014 to 2011-2015.
The dynamics among Russian universities in the international ranking have changed, too; out of the top 15 universities in Russia, eight have lost position. The Impact indicator has decreased for 11 out of 15, including for Moscow State University.
However, ITMO University has risen by five points in the international top-1000 ranking, placing 831st on the list. A total of eight Russian universities are present in the top-100, as compared to last year’s seven. Besides ITMO, these are: Moscow State University (215), St. Petersburg State University (482), Novosibirsk State University (555), Higher School of Economics (760), MEPhI (809), Tomsk State University (855) and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (887).
The Webometrics ranking was established in 2004 and is considered one of the most reputable web-rankings of the world’s educational institutions. The ranking’s methodology is based on analysis of universities’ representation in the global infosphere and, in an indirect fashion, allows for evaluation of a university’s educational and research qualities. The goal of the Webometrics project is to assist universities in the publication of their scientific achievements and to present them to a wide audience.
