UPF is the Spanish university with the greatest scientific impact and the highest degree of collaboration in its publications

UPF is the first university in the Spanish state in the research ranking published by the University of Leiden since 2008. This ranking assesses two dimensions of the research of the participating institutions related with the quality of their publications: the scientific impact they generate and the degree of collaboration (national or international) with which they are produced. When the results are weighted for the size of the institution, UPF comes out as being the first University in the State for scientific impact and national collaboration, and the second for international collaboration.

The weighted scientific impact of an institution is obtained from the ratio of publications of a university belonging to 1%, 10% or 50% of the most cited in the most influential journals of their field. UPF appears first in the three percentages. The degree of collaboration is obtained according to the number of institutions in the same country that sign these publications while the degree of international collaboration is calculated on the basis of publications with authors from two or more countries.

The ranking works on the Web of Science database and analyses the publications it contains over a period of four years. In the 2016 edition, the publications of 842 universities from all over the world have been assessed for the period 2011-2014.

The “fractional counting” paradox

Despite the good results achieved in this edition, this is the first time that UPF has appeared in this classification given that until now, the University did not exceed the minimum threshold of publications that Leiden establishes for participating in its ranking.

To calculate this minimum, Leiden uses a model based on “fractional counting”, which gives more weight to an institution’s own publications at the expense of publications in collaboration with other institutions (national and international). Because a high percentage of UPF publications are produced in collaboration with researchers from other institutions, the University did not attain the minimum required to participate in the ranking. Paradoxically, at the time of the 2016 edition, the University exceeds the minimum threshold, appears prominently, and in turn, and as a result of the updating of the data, it also appears in all previous editions.