Puerto Rico University Research Rankings
Compare Puerto Rico universities using recent research output, citation impact, growth and a transparent research-performance score.
Research landscape
The current ITS Research Intelligence dataset contains 26 index-ready universities in Puerto Rico. Across those institutions, the average five-year research output is approximately 1,344 works and the average five-year citation count is approximately 6,061. The average publication-growth signal is 199.8%. 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 Puerto Rico
| Rank | University | Country | Score | 5-year works | 5-year citations | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | National University College | Puerto Rico | 74.2 | 5,602 | 71,781 | 3.3% |
| #2 | University of Puerto Rico System | Puerto Rico | 71.3 | 3,586 | 21,681 | 9.0% |
| #3 | University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez | Puerto Rico | 68.9 | 2,578 | 15,276 | 7.2% |
| #4 | University of Puerto Rico at Carolina | Puerto Rico | 67.0 | 9,958 | 458 | 5,078.6% |
| #5 | University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras | Puerto Rico | 65.6 | 2,349 | 7,623 | -5.6% |
| #6 | Universidad Metropolitana | Puerto Rico | 65.2 | 1,935 | 9,213 | 78.2% |
| #7 | University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus | Puerto Rico | 64.9 | 1,938 | 10,483 | -6.1% |
| #8 | Ponce Health Sciences University | Puerto Rico | 61.9 | 1,272 | 3,486 | 53.9% |
| #9 | Central University of the Caribbean | Puerto Rico | 55.0 | 586 | 1,384 | 6.3% |
| #10 | University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo | Puerto Rico | 53.7 | 290 | 6,339 | -30.2% |
| #11 | American Military Academy | Puerto Rico | 51.9 | 417 | 462 | 101.1% |
| #12 | InterAmerican University of Puerto Rico | Puerto Rico | 50.5 | 346 | 1,127 | -15.6% |
| #13 | Ana G. Mendez University System | Puerto Rico | 50.2 | 453 | 1,704 | -12.9% |
| #14 | Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico | Puerto Rico | 49.9 | 782 | 377 | 17.5% |
| #15 | San Juan Bautista School of Medicine | Puerto Rico | 49.3 | 416 | 693 | 20.0% |
| #16 | Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico | Puerto Rico | 49.2 | 730 | 646 | -14.5% |
| #17 | University of Puerto Rico at Humacao | Puerto Rico | 47.1 | 148 | 426 | 24.0% |
| #18 | Carlos Albizu University | Puerto Rico | 46.8 | 252 | 1,038 | -40.5% |
| #19 | University of Puerto Rico at Cayey | Puerto Rico | 46.8 | 189 | 520 | 7.3% |
| #20 | University of Puerto Rico at Ponce | Puerto Rico | 46.2 | 210 | 314 | 29.9% |
| #21 | Atlantic University College | Puerto Rico | 45.8 | 141 | 871 | 1.9% |
| #22 | University of The Sacred Heart | Puerto Rico | 44.3 | 113 | 554 | -20.0% |
| #23 | University of Puerto Rico at Bayamón | Puerto Rico | 44.2 | 155 | 523 | -3.1% |
| #24 | Caribbean University | Puerto Rico | 43.8 | 179 | 452 | -19.2% |
| #25 | Universidad Del Este | Puerto Rico | 38.7 | 126 | 95 | -41.8% |
| #26 | Antillean Adventist University | Puerto Rico | 35.7 | 190 | 61 | -34.1% |
How ITS Research Score v2 is constructed
Every index-ready institution has a base score from recent output, citations, h-index, i10-index and publication growth. After deep enrichment completes, ITS Research Score v2 uses six dimensions: 25% output strength, 30% Research Impact Score, 20% Momentum Score, 10% international-collaboration share, 5% open-access share and 10% topic-diversity signal. Output and citation-scale terms are log-normalized to reduce domination by the largest universities.
Research Impact Score combines citation intensity, h-index, two-year mean citedness when available and i10 visibility. It is intentionally not called field-normalized impact. International collaboration is based on recent works with authors from more than one country. Research diversity is an entropy-based summary of the institution’s leading topic signals, not a department count.
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.