The Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS), published annually by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, ranks universities across 55 individual academic subjects spanning five broad fields: Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences.
Universities are included if they have published a minimum number of research papers (varying by subject) during a five-year period. Bibliometric data is collected from Web of Science and InCites.
Indicator Categories
The ranking uses nine indicators organized into five categories:
| Category | Indicator | Code |
|---|---|---|
| World-Class Faculty | International Academic Award Laureates | Laureate |
| Highly Cited Researchers | HCR | |
| Chief Editors of International Academic Journals | Editor | |
| International Academic Organization Leadership | Leadership | |
| World-Class Output | Top Journal Papers | TJ |
| International Academic Awards | Award | |
| High-Quality Research | Q1 Journal Papers | Q1 |
| Research Impact | Category Normalized Citation Impact | CNCI |
| International Collaboration | International Collaborated Papers | IC |
Indicator weights vary by subject to reflect different publication and research patterns across disciplines. Q1 (weight 100), CNCI (weight 50), and IC (weight 10-20) are applied uniformly, while the World-Class Faculty and World-Class Output indicators carry different weights depending on the subject.
Indicator Definitions
Laureate
The number of full-time faculty members who have received significant international academic awards in their field. Awards are selected through the ShanghaiRanking Academic Excellence Survey (AES). Only laureates aged 80 or younger are counted.
HCR (Highly Cited Researchers)
Faculty members recognized as Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate in the relevant academic subject. Only primary affiliations are considered.
Editor
The number of faculty members serving as chief editors of international journals indexed by SCIE, SSCI, and AHCI. Different weights apply by position: Editor-in-Chief receives 200% weight, while Deputy Editor-in-Chief receives 100%.
Leadership
The number of faculty holding leadership positions (President, Vice President, Secretary General, etc.) in key international academic organizations, as identified through the AES survey.
TJ (Top Journal Papers)
The number of papers published in top journals or top conferences within a subject over a five-year period. Top journals are nominated by distinguished scholars through the AES survey. Only articles are counted.
Award (International Academic Awards)
The cumulative number of staff who have won significant academic awards since 1991, with time-based weighting: 100% for 2021-2023, 75% for 2010-2020, 50% for 2000-2010, and 25% for 1991-2000.
Q1 (Q1 Journal Papers)
The number of papers published in journals ranked in the first quartile (Q1) by Journal Impact Factor during a five-year period. Only articles are counted. Data is sourced from Web of Science and InCites.
CNCI (Category Normalized Citation Impact)
The ratio of an institution's citations to the global average for papers of the same type, year, and subject category. A CNCI of 1.0 represents world-average performance; values above 1.0 indicate above-average citation impact.
IC (International Collaborated Papers)
The proportion of an institution's publications that include co-authors from at least two different countries, measuring the level of international research collaboration.
Scoring Method
For each indicator, institutions are scored as a percentage of the top institution's value, then the square root of that percentage is multiplied by the allocated weight. The final score is the sum of all weighted indicator scores, and universities are ranked in descending order.
Data Sources
- Academic Excellence Survey (AES): Top journals, awards, and organizations nominated by scholars
- Highly Cited Researchers: Clarivate
- Journal data: Journal Citation Reports (JCR) by Clarivate
- Publication and citation data: Web of Science and InCites