Hong Kong University Research Rankings
Compare Hong Kong universities using recent research output, citation impact, growth and a transparent research-performance score.
Research landscape
The current ITS Research Intelligence dataset contains 14 index-ready universities in Hong Kong. Across those institutions, the average five-year research output is approximately 22,169 works and the average five-year citation count is approximately 347,067. The average publication-growth signal is 43.8%. These figures describe the institutions that pass the public quality gate; they are not intended to represent every tertiary institution in the country.
Country rankings are useful for benchmarking because they reduce some of the structural differences that make global comparisons difficult. They still should not be treated as a complete assessment of institutional quality: teaching, student outcomes, funding levels, research field mix and institutional mission are outside this research-performance score. The value of the page is in seeing who is producing research, how that activity is changing, and where citation visibility is concentrated.
Top research universities in Hong Kong
| Rank | University | Country | Score | 5-year works | 5-year citations | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 88.5 | 83,864 | 1,206,224 | 40.2% |
| #2 | Chinese University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 87.4 | 62,844 | 928,374 | 38.3% |
| #3 | Hong Kong Polytechnic University | Hong Kong | 86.5 | 56,867 | 982,455 | 62.9% |
| #4 | City University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 85.3 | 42,788 | 825,814 | 36.8% |
| #5 | Hong Kong University of Science and Technology | Hong Kong | 84.6 | 32,533 | 548,576 | 60.2% |
| #6 | Hong Kong Baptist University | Hong Kong | 78.2 | 14,752 | 195,370 | 22.1% |
| #7 | Education University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 74.3 | 8,431 | 110,273 | 50.2% |
| #8 | Hong Kong Metropolitan University | Hong Kong | 63.5 | 2,992 | 19,280 | 38.3% |
| #9 | Hang Seng University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 63.2 | 1,241 | 17,569 | 4.5% |
| #10 | Lingnan University | Hong Kong | 60.3 | 2,346 | 9,428 | 209.2% |
| #11 | Tung Wah College | Hong Kong | 57.4 | 855 | 6,442 | 71.6% |
| #12 | Saint Francis University | Hong Kong | 51.1 | 376 | 3,895 | -44.6% |
| #13 | Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 51.0 | 289 | 3,918 | -41.3% |
| #14 | Hong Kong Chu Hai College | Hong Kong | 43.6 | 181 | 1,316 | 65.5% |
How ITS Research Score v3 is constructed
One formula applies to every index-ready institution, using the five most recent complete calendar years: 25% research output, 25% citations, 20% h-index and 5% i10-index (log-normalized so the largest universities do not dominate linearly), 15% citation impact (the institution’s percentile on citations per work, reduced below 500 works so small samples cannot win by chance), 5% publication growth and 5% international-collaboration share. When collaboration data is not yet available, the other weights are rescaled.
Data-quality controls: the unfinished current year is never counted, and a year in which recorded output jumps to more than three times the institution’s usual level while being at least 90% open access is treated as a bulk dataset or repository deposit and scored at the usual level. Raw data are kept and every adjustment is logged. Open-access share and topic diversity are published as separate rankings and do not affect the main score. Citation impact is not field-normalized.
These indicators assess research activity only. They do not measure teaching quality, student experience, employability, reputation, finances or accreditation. Missing data are left missing rather than fabricated.