15%
E) Collaboration & Global Reach

The Collaboration & Global Reach indicator evaluates how strongly an entity connects with researchers, institutions, countries, publishers, and knowledge networks across the global research ecosystem.

This indicator highlights the importance of research partnerships, cross-border collaboration, institutional networks, and international academic visibility. Strong collaboration often leads to higher research quality, wider knowledge exchange, stronger citations, and greater global influence.

Rather than measuring research in isolation, this indicator examines how research is created, shared, and recognized through local, regional, and international cooperation.

Research today is no longer limited to one institution, one country, or one discipline. The strongest research ecosystems are built through collaboration, shared expertise, and global academic relationships.

This indicator helps identify authors, institutions, publishers, funders, and research organizations that actively participate in international knowledge exchange and contribute to wider scholarly networks.

Weight: 3%

Cross-border research collaboration strength

The International Collaboration Score evaluates the extent to which an entity participates in research produced through partnerships between authors, institutions, or organizations located in different countries.

International collaboration is strongly associated with broader knowledge exchange, higher research visibility, stronger citation performance, and wider academic influence. Research developed through global partnerships often benefits from multidisciplinary expertise, shared infrastructure, international funding opportunities, and increased dissemination across worldwide scholarly communities.

This indicator measures how actively an entity contributes to globally connected research ecosystems and international scientific cooperation.

It considers:

• Percentage of internationally co-authored research outputs
• Number of countries involved in research partnerships
• Cross-border institutional collaboration activity
• Global diversity of research contributors
• International publication and citation reach
• Long-term participation in global scholarly networks

The score is normalized to allow fair comparison between entities operating in different research environments and disciplines.

Weight: 2%

Research partnerships between institutions and organizations

The Institutional Collaboration Score evaluates the strength and consistency of research partnerships between universities, research centers, institutes, laboratories, and other scholarly organizations.

Strong institutional collaboration reflects the ability of an entity to participate in larger research ecosystems, share expertise, access broader infrastructure, and contribute to collective scientific advancement.

This indicator helps identify entities that actively build sustainable academic and research partnerships across the global knowledge network.

It considers:

• Number of collaborating institutions
• Frequency of joint research outputs
• Long-term institutional research partnerships
• Diversity of collaborating organizations
• Shared publication activity between institutions
• Strength of institutional research networks

The score is normalized to support fair benchmarking across institutions of different sizes and regions.

Weight: 2%

Collaboration between academia, industry, government, and society

The Cross-Sector Collaboration Score measures research cooperation between academic institutions and external sectors such as industry, government agencies, healthcare organizations, NGOs, and innovation ecosystems.

Cross-sector collaboration often reflects real-world applicability, innovation potential, technology transfer, and societal engagement.

This indicator identifies entities capable of connecting scholarly research with practical implementation and broader economic or social impact.

It considers:

• Joint research between academia and industry
• Government-funded collaborative projects
• Partnerships with healthcare and public organizations
• Innovation and applied research collaboration
• External sector participation in publications
• Multi-sector research engagement diversity

The score is normalized to ensure balanced comparison across research ecosystems and disciplines.

Weight: 2%

Strength and diversity of scholarly co-author networks

The Co-Authorship Network Score evaluates the scale, diversity, and interconnectedness of an entity’s research collaboration network through co-authored scholarly outputs.

Large and diverse co-author networks often indicate strong integration within the global research community and greater exposure to interdisciplinary collaboration.

This indicator examines how effectively entities participate in collaborative scholarly relationships across different academic environments.

It considers:

• Size of co-author research networks
• Diversity of research collaborators
• Frequency of repeated collaborations
• Interdisciplinary co-authorship activity
• Network connectivity and relationship strength
• Breadth of collaborative scholarly participation

The score is normalized to support fair comparison between entities of varying research scales.

Weight: 2%

International visibility and worldwide research presence

The Global Reach Score measures how widely an entity’s research is visible, cited, accessed, and recognized across different countries and global academic communities.

This indicator reflects the international presence and worldwide dissemination of scholarly contributions beyond local or regional influence.

Entities with strong global reach often demonstrate higher international engagement, broader academic recognition, and stronger participation in worldwide research ecosystems.

It considers:

• International citation distribution
• Global publication visibility
• Worldwide readership and scholarly engagement
• Research influence across multiple regions
• International source and publisher exposure
• Cross-country research dissemination patterns

The score is normalized to allow balanced comparison across disciplines and entity types.

Weight: 2%

Strength of regional academic cooperation

The Regional Collaboration Score evaluates research partnerships and collaborative activity within regional academic ecosystems and neighboring countries.

Regional cooperation plays an important role in addressing shared challenges, supporting regional innovation, and strengthening local research capacity.

This indicator identifies entities actively contributing to regional knowledge development and academic integration.

It considers:

• Regional co-authored research outputs
• Partnerships within geographic regions
• Participation in regional research initiatives
• Collaboration with neighboring countries
• Regional scholarly network engagement
• Contribution to local research ecosystems

The score is normalized to ensure fair comparison across regions with different research capacities.

Weight: 2%

Diversity and breadth of research collaboration networks

The Partnership Diversity Score measures the variety of research partnerships established across countries, institutions, sectors, disciplines, and scholarly communities.

Diverse collaboration networks often strengthen innovation, improve interdisciplinary research, and increase exposure to different scientific perspectives and methodologies.

This indicator evaluates how broadly and inclusively an entity participates within the global research ecosystem.

It considers:

• Diversity of collaborating countries
• Variety of institutional partnerships
• Cross-disciplinary collaboration activity
• Multi-sector research engagement
• Breadth of international and regional cooperation
• Balance between local and global partnerships

The score is normalized to support equitable comparison across different research environments and entity categories.

The UNIRANKS Open Index methodology is built around multiple interconnected indicators designed to evaluate research ecosystems from different perspectives, including scholarly impact, openness, collaboration, trust, growth, societal contribution, and ecosystem alignment.

Each indicator explores a unique dimension of research performance to provide a broader and more balanced understanding of global scholarly activity beyond traditional ranking models.

A) Core Output & Scale: 15%

Measuring the Foundation of Research Activity

Evaluate scholarly production volume, publication growth, productivity performance, and research scale across the global academic ecosystem.

Explore Core Output & Scale →

B) Impact & Excellence: 20%

Understanding Scholarly Influence and Research Recognition

Analyze citation impact, academic influence, research excellence, and the global visibility of scholarly contributions.

Explore Impact & Excellence →

C) Quality, Trust & Integrity: 15%

Evaluating Reliability and Research Credibility

Measure research trustworthiness through integrity indicators, publication quality signals, indexing standards, and scholarly reliability metrics.

Explore Quality, Trust & Integrity →

D) Open Science & Accessibility: 10%

Measuring Openness and Knowledge Accessibility

Assess open access availability, public research visibility, accessibility practices, and participation in open scholarly ecosystems.

Explore Open Science & Accessibility →

E) Collaboration & Global Reach: 15%

Mapping Research Connectivity Across Borders

Evaluate international collaboration, institutional partnerships, co-authorship networks, and global scholarly engagement.

Explore Collaboration & Global Reach →

F) Portfolio Strength & Momentum: 10%

Analyzing Research Diversity and Development Trends

Measure the breadth, sustainability, specialization, and evolving momentum of scholarly research portfolios over time.

Explore Portfolio Strength & Momentum →

G) Knowledge Transfer & Societal Influence: 10%

Measuring Research Contribution Beyond Academia

Evaluate how research supports innovation, policy development, industry engagement, education, healthcare, sustainability, and societal advancement.

Explore Knowledge Transfer & Societal Influence →

H) OI Alignment: 05%

Measuring Ecosystem Compatibility and Open Index Readiness

Assess how effectively entities align with the UNIRANKS Open Index framework, structured scholarly ecosystems, openness standards, and research connectivity models.

Explore OI Alignment →

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