The Lens

There are five indicators that determine the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024:

Academic reputation

Drawing on responses from academics, this indicator demonstrates which universities other academics consider to be excellent for research in the given area. The results of the survey are then filtered according to the narrow area of expertise identified by respondents.

Employer reputation

The employer reputation indicator draws from the survey responses of graduate employers worldwide. Employers are asked to identify institutions they consider excellent for the recruitment of graduates. They are also asked to identify the disciplines from which they prefer to recruit. 

Research citations per paper

All citations data is sourced from Elsevier Scopus. A minimum publication threshold is set for each subject to avoid potential anomalies stemming from small numbers of highly cited papers.

Both the minimum publications threshold and the weighting applied to the citations indicator are adapted in order to best reflect prevalent publication and citation patterns in a given discipline.

H-index

The H-index is a way of measuring both the productivity and impact of an academic or department at a university. The index is based on the set of the academic’s most cited papers and the number of citations they have received in other publications. 

International research network (by broad faculty area)

The IRN Index reflects the ability of institutions to diversify the geography of their international research network by establishing sustainable research partnerships with other higher education institutions.