Assessing Results of University Research Activities: Indicators of Openness in Rankings

Open access to scientific results and research data becomes an engine for the successful development of modern science. The article examines popular rankings of world universities: the CWTS Leiden Ranking, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE Rankings), the QS World University Rankings (QS), the SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR) and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). The objective of the research was to study the ranking methodologies in the ratings under consideration and to determine the place of the openness criteria in them. A comparative analysis of world’s and Russia’s top universities in rankings is provided. The author has made an assessment of the significance of openness indicators in the world rankings, on the basis of which it has been concluded that only two world rankings pay due attention to these ranking criteria. Of those considered, only the evaluation methodologies of the CWTS Leiden Ranking and the SCImago Institutions Rankings take into account a quantitative analysis of open access publications and altmetric impact indicators. The rest of the considered rankings focus mainly on standard bibliometric indicators from different blocks related to the assessment of education, research, academic impact and international cooperation. Thus, in 2019–2022, the University College London (UK) was the top university in the CWTS Leiden Ranking in terms of the share of open access publications (90.8%) and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology was ranked the first among Russian universities (66.6%).