New university rankings have upended the world: Chinese universities hold 6 of top 10 spots

The Leiden University Center for Science and Technology Studies CWTS group has new university rankings that add open-data sources to the traditional list of top journals, which were previously the standard.

Common university ranking systems carefully consider research reputation and scholarship, including real-world impact and application. But tens of thousands of scientific and engineering journals are omitted by Western university ranking systems, especially those not written in the English language.

Simply by including the journals in the OpenAlex databases, Chinese universities vault to the top of global rankings for research universities, snagging six of the top nine spots, and ten of the top 20.

Resources and links:

Forbes, China Used More Concrete In 3 Years Than The U.S. Used In The Entire 20th Century [Infographic]
https://www.forbes.com/sites/n....iallmccarthy/2014/12

Nature, Modernizing cement manufacturing in China leads to substantial environmental gains
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00579-3

Graphic, China HSR network since 2008
https://www.reddit.com/r/Urban....ism/comments/1ceda02

CNN, High speed trains are racing across the world. But not in America
https://www.cnn.com/travel/art....icle/high-speed-rail

Sample English-language abstracts of Chinese scholarship in high-speed rail:
Nature, High-speed rail new towns and their impacts on urban sustainable development: a spatial analysis based on satellite remote sensing data
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-024-03337-2

Nature, The impacts of high-speed railway on environmental sustainability: quasi-experimental evidence from China
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-02135-6

Nature, The impact of high-speed rail on SO2 emissions—based on spatial difference-in-differences analysis
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-49853-0

High-Speed Rail and Energy Productivity: Evidence from China
https://journals.sagepub.com/d....oi/10.5547/01956574.

Nature, How does the opening of high-speed rail drive energy restructuring? New micro evidence from China
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-024-02622-4

Forbes, A Look Inside Shenzhen's High-Tech Empire
https://www.forbes.com/sites/w....adeshepard/2016/07/1

China’s universities just grabbed 6 of the top 10 spots in one worldwide science ranking – without changing a thing
https://theconversation.com/ch....inas-universities-ju

Methodologies for CWTS Leiden Global University Rankings:
https://open.leidenranking.com..../#:~:text=The%20Leid
and https://www.universiteitleiden.....nl/en/news/2024/01/

Leiden Rankings for 2024
https://www.leidenranking.com/

Closing scene, Hong Kong