TEHRAN — The Center for Science and Technology Studies Leiden Ranking has placed twenty three Iranian universities in the list of 1,000 major universities worldwide in 2018 which is prepared based on the indicators of scientific impact and collaboration.

The rankings are compiled by the CWTS (Dutch: Centrum voor Wetenschap en Technologische Studies, CWTS) at Leiden University in the Netherlands. 
Compared to the 2017 ranking with 18 Iranian universities among world top universities this year some 5 more universities are included in the ranking. 

University of Tehran, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Sharif University of Technology, Tarbiat Modares University, Isfahan University of Technology, Iran University of Science and Technology, Shiraz University of Technology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, University of Tabriz, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch, Shahid Beheshti University, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, University of Gilan, and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences were ranked among world-class universities in 2017.

This year University of Kashan, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Bu-Ali Sina University and Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman are added to the ranking as well. 

University of Tehran with 5,422 publications, Amirkabir University of Technology with 4,036 publications, Tehran University of Medical Sciences with 3,679 publications came in 179th, 272nd, and 313rd respectively which all show a rise compared to their 2017 ranking. In 2017 University of Tehran with 4,933 publications, Amirkabir University of Technology with 3,643 publications, and Tehran University of Medical Sciences with 3,432 publications came in 195th, 292nd, and 322nd place worldwide. 

The top of the list is no different from the year 2017. Harvard University with 33,045 publications, University of Toronto with 22,151 publications, and Zhejiang University with 20,876 publications are three top leading universities worldwide. In Asia all three top universities are from China including Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tsinghua University. In fact the Leiden’s top 50 is heavily dominated by Chinese universities. University of Tehran is ranked 54th among 334 Asian Universities. 

The Leiden Ranking offers advanced indicators of scientific impact and collaboration. The underlying bibliometric methodology is richly documented. The Leiden Ranking provides information exclusively about the research done at universities. Research is represented in publications, and carefully collected data about these publications forms the basis for the Leiden Ranking. This basis also ensures the independence of the Leiden Ranking, since it does not rely on data submitted by the universities themselves. Finally, because universities are complex institutions that have a variety of forms, contexts and missions, their performance cannot be represented by a single number. The Leiden Ranking consistently presents different indicators to explore the performance of universities from different angles.

MQ/MG