Folio Home > Oct 22, 2010 > U of A moves up in publications’ ranking
U of A moves up in publications’ ranking
Michael Brown
According to the SCImago Institutions Rankings, which analyzed the recent research-publication performance of 2,833 international research institutions and organizations, the U of A finished 57th in the world, 30th in North America and third in Canada. This is a hefty jump from the U of A’s impressive 2009 international ranking of 66th.
“The U of A’s performance in these rankings is a reflection of our faculty and their hard work,” said President Indira Samarasekera. “To be ranked among the top 50 in the world helps us become a talent magnet and attract the best students, teachers and researchers from here and abroad.”
Although encouraged by the rankings, Samarasekera is quick to point out university rankings only give a partial measure of a school’s performance. “Although they can impact a school’s reputation, they only provide a limited overview of our performance and are only one component of benchmarks that we consider.”
SCImago is a research group affiliated with three universities in Spain-Granada, Extremadura and Carlos III in Madrid. Fully focused on the research dimension of institutions, SIR combines the ranking is amassed by combining indicators of institution research performance that stress output, collaboration, publication rate and impact. Analyzed institutions are grouped into five research sectors: government, higher education, health, corporate and others. Data for the rankings includes analysis of more than 80 per cent of the world’s research publications released between 2004 and 2008.
The 21,152 published U of A documents collected for the SIR ranking revealed strength in international collaboration, solid journal importance and better-than-average scientific impact.
According to figures gathered by Research Infosource, a leading provider of research intelligence for business and higher education, in 2009 the U of A was the recipient of $507.6 million in sponsored research income. The U of A finished behind only the University of Toronto, which led the Top 50 list with $858.2 million, and the University of British Columbia, which registered a 11.6 per cent year-over-year increase in sponsored research revenue.