Which University Has the Best Quality of Papers? ... UNIST Tops the 'Leiden Ranking' in Korea for 6 Consecutive Years

Top 10% of All Papers Account for 13.6%, Rising to 121st Worldwide

Recognized for Paper Impact, Maintaining Overwhelming Domestic No.1 for 6 Years Since 2017

UNIST.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] In the ‘Leiden Ranking,’ which evaluates the quality and impact of papers among global universities, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) ranked first in Korea for six consecutive years.

This ranking focuses on the ‘quality of papers,’ indicating that the university’s competitiveness is continuously recognized in global university evaluations.

UNIST ranked first in Korea and 121st in the world in the ‘2022 Leiden Ranking’ announced on the 22nd local time.

In the domestic ranking, it has held the top position for six consecutive years. The Leiden Ranking is published annually by Leiden University in the Netherlands. It is based on the ‘impact of papers,’ not on the university’s reputation or size. Therefore, it is used as a measure to estimate each university’s research competitiveness.

The Leiden Ranking targets universities that have published more than 800 papers in the recent four years (2017?2020). This year, 1,318 universities from 69 countries (1,225 universities last year) were analyzed. The ranking criterion is the proportion of papers in the top 10% most cited among all papers published by each university.

During the evaluation period, UNIST published a total of 2,460 papers (based on Fractional Counting). Among these, 335 papers were in the top 10% most cited, accounting for 13.6%. The proportion of papers in the top 1% was also 1.3%, the highest among Korean universities.

In the world ranking, Rockefeller University (33.3%) ranked first, followed by MIT (23.7%), Princeton University (22.3%), Caltech (21.5%), Stanford University (21.2%), and Harvard University (20.7%), which received high evaluations.

The domestic university rankings were UNIST (13.6%), Sejong University (10.4%), KAIST (10.4%), POSTECH (10.3%), Yeungnam University (8.4%), Ewha Womans University (8.2%), Kangwon National University (7.9%), DGIST (7.7%), Dongguk University (7.7%), and University of Ulsan (7.6%). UNIST first entered the ranking in 2017 and has maintained the top position among Korean universities for six consecutive years up to this year.

President Lee Yong-hoon said, “Thanks to the excellent researchers conducting outstanding research, we have consistently received good evaluations,” and added, “We will strive further so that outstanding researchers can freely conduct research and produce research outcomes that contribute to academia and humanity.”