Top 100 Universities by Research Performance
The ITS Research Score is a research-intelligence composite. Base profiles use output, citations, h-index, i10 and growth; deep-complete profiles use the v2 model described in the methodology.
Ranking table
The table is recalculated after database refreshes. Because citation and affiliation metadata change over time, the ranking is presented as a dated analytical snapshot rather than a permanent claim.
| Rank | University | Country | Score | 5-year works | 5-year citations | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Harvard University | United States | 92.3 | 173,192 | 3,458,186 | -2.7% |
| #2 | University College London | United Kingdom | 91.5 | 172,008 | 2,443,901 | 11.1% |
| #3 | Stanford University | United States | 90.0 | 130,687 | 2,021,646 | 0.4% |
| #4 | University of Washington | United States | 89.8 | 116,133 | 1,572,311 | 0.7% |
| #5 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 89.8 | 181,718 | 1,981,134 | -1.9% |
| #6 | University of Toronto | Canada | 89.6 | 147,822 | 1,953,104 | 0.9% |
| #7 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 89.4 | 116,710 | 1,632,130 | -0.8% |
| #8 | Johns Hopkins University | United States | 89.2 | 130,229 | 1,800,641 | -4.1% |
| #9 | Imperial College London | United Kingdom | 88.8 | 116,645 | 1,541,914 | -1.3% |
| #10 | Tsinghua University | China | 88.6 | 136,887 | 2,366,826 | 30.4% |
| #11 | University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 88.5 | 83,864 | 1,206,224 | 40.2% |
| #12 | National University of Singapore | Singapore | 88.3 | 86,173 | 1,472,459 | 16.8% |
| #13 | Yale University | United States | 88.1 | 114,240 | 1,266,921 | 65.6% |
| #14 | University of Chinese Academy of Sciences | China | 88.1 | 195,306 | 3,173,752 | -5.6% |
| #15 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | United States | 87.8 | 65,399 | 1,130,870 | 6.8% |
| #16 | Cornell University | United States | 87.8 | 110,486 | 1,397,475 | 7.6% |
| #17 | Zhejiang University | China | 87.7 | 159,128 | 2,235,549 | 21.1% |
| #18 | Université Paris Cité | France | 87.6 | 92,495 | 1,240,549 | 8.1% |
| #19 | Peking University | China | 87.5 | 166,278 | 2,006,191 | 5.9% |
| #20 | Chinese University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 87.4 | 62,844 | 928,374 | 38.3% |
| #21 | University of Pennsylvania | United States | 87.4 | 85,351 | 1,379,416 | 1.6% |
| #22 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | China | 87.3 | 162,490 | 2,193,445 | 13.6% |
| #23 | University of British Columbia | Canada | 87.2 | 94,995 | 1,157,422 | -1.2% |
| #24 | University of California San Diego | United States | 87.2 | 91,957 | 1,286,994 | 5.0% |
| #25 | Karolinska Institutet | Sweden | 87.1 | 65,806 | 913,304 | 5.8% |
| #26 | Heidelberg University | Germany | 87.1 | 81,873 | 1,043,700 | -2.9% |
| #27 | Monash University | Australia | 87.1 | 95,198 | 1,368,088 | 4.6% |
| #28 | The University of Queensland | Australia | 87.0 | 80,120 | 1,100,408 | -1.0% |
| #29 | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 86.9 | 108,688 | 1,292,642 | 5.6% |
| #30 | Columbia University | United States | 86.9 | 85,462 | 1,137,213 | 2.9% |
| #31 | Nanyang Technological University | Singapore | 86.9 | 59,190 | 1,078,171 | 21.4% |
| #32 | KU Leuven | Belgium | 86.8 | 84,133 | 1,027,092 | 4.6% |
| #33 | The University of Sydney | Australia | 86.8 | 94,178 | 1,200,869 | 2.8% |
| #34 | ETH Zurich | Switzerland | 86.8 | 76,360 | 1,012,193 | 10.6% |
| #35 | University of California, San Francisco | United States | 86.8 | 78,367 | 1,154,116 | 2.3% |
| #36 | University of Michigan | United States | 86.7 | 119,673 | 1,489,386 | 4.8% |
| #37 | University of California, Los Angeles | United States | 86.7 | 101,122 | 1,222,341 | -0.1% |
| #38 | University of Copenhagen | Denmark | 86.6 | 93,608 | 1,064,369 | 18.6% |
| #39 | Hong Kong Polytechnic University | Hong Kong | 86.5 | 56,867 | 982,455 | 62.9% |
| #40 | Sun Yat-sen University | China | 86.5 | 144,591 | 1,786,932 | 12.7% |
| #41 | King's College London | United Kingdom | 86.4 | 81,426 | 1,050,790 | 5.3% |
| #42 | UNSW Sydney | Australia | 86.2 | 80,632 | 1,190,352 | -5.2% |
| #43 | University of Amsterdam | The Netherlands | 86.2 | 63,870 | 976,160 | 4.7% |
| #44 | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 86.1 | 77,640 | 932,337 | 8.0% |
| #45 | University of California, Berkeley | United States | 86.1 | 90,219 | 1,124,753 | -10.8% |
| #46 | University of Science and Technology of China | China | 86.1 | 89,129 | 1,480,499 | 26.7% |
| #47 | Sorbonne Université | France | 86.0 | 119,685 | 1,116,647 | 10.3% |
| #48 | University of Manchester | United Kingdom | 85.9 | 77,584 | 918,032 | 10.7% |
| #49 | Huazhong University of Science and Technology | China | 85.7 | 110,703 | 1,567,220 | 9.9% |
| #50 | King Saud University | Saudi Arabia | 85.6 | 75,841 | 991,298 | 65.7% |
| #51 | Washington University in St. Louis | United States | 85.5 | 69,100 | 896,664 | 3.3% |
| #52 | Northwestern University | United States | 85.5 | 58,235 | 1,035,865 | -2.2% |
| #53 | Central South University | China | 85.5 | 118,281 | 1,611,531 | 19.3% |
| #54 | City University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 85.3 | 42,788 | 825,814 | 36.8% |
| #55 | Fudan University | China | 85.3 | 107,040 | 1,384,980 | 11.9% |
| #56 | McGill University | Canada | 85.3 | 72,722 | 842,919 | 3.6% |
| #57 | University of Groningen | The Netherlands | 85.2 | 51,696 | 715,580 | -4.5% |
| #58 | University of Glasgow | United Kingdom | 85.2 | 52,133 | 668,829 | 13.4% |
| #59 | Technical University of Munich | Germany | 85.2 | 70,345 | 853,810 | 19.5% |
| #60 | University of Zurich | Switzerland | 85.1 | 61,651 | 748,628 | 1.0% |
| #61 | University of Birmingham | United Kingdom | 85.1 | 54,889 | 710,066 | 13.5% |
| #62 | University of Chicago | United States | 85.1 | 74,344 | 828,571 | 15.1% |
| #63 | Sichuan University | China | 85.0 | 124,573 | 1,573,705 | 14.3% |
| #64 | Wuhan University | China | 85.0 | 90,814 | 1,261,487 | 15.0% |
| #65 | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Germany | 85.0 | 84,049 | 863,116 | 21.2% |
| #66 | New York University | United States | 85.0 | 70,745 | 837,501 | 18.8% |
| #67 | University of Milan | Italy | 85.0 | 76,249 | 734,803 | 24.7% |
| #68 | Radboud University Nijmegen | The Netherlands | 84.9 | 58,188 | 712,942 | 0.3% |
| #69 | University of Bristol | United Kingdom | 84.8 | 54,967 | 766,615 | 6.4% |
| #70 | Université Paris-Saclay | France | 84.8 | 92,873 | 929,296 | 27.7% |
| #71 | Utrecht University | The Netherlands | 84.7 | 59,350 | 732,152 | 8.0% |
| #72 | University of Bern | Switzerland | 84.7 | 51,579 | 588,488 | 4.1% |
| #73 | Duke University | United States | 84.7 | 72,420 | 855,997 | 4.8% |
| #74 | The University of Tokyo | Japan | 84.7 | 98,246 | 985,007 | -2.0% |
| #75 | École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne | Switzerland | 84.7 | 45,144 | 564,571 | 16.8% |
| #76 | McMaster University | Canada | 84.6 | 49,086 | 730,881 | 0.8% |
| #77 | Hong Kong University of Science and Technology | Hong Kong | 84.6 | 32,533 | 548,576 | 60.2% |
| #78 | University of Helsinki | Finland | 84.6 | 64,463 | 694,916 | 7.9% |
| #79 | University of Wisconsin–Madison | United States | 84.6 | 76,160 | 843,870 | 12.6% |
| #80 | Princeton University | United States | 84.6 | 44,013 | 637,257 | 4.6% |
| #81 | University of Minnesota | United States | 84.5 | 60,557 | 810,861 | -6.8% |
| #82 | University of Padua | Italy | 84.5 | 65,540 | 734,170 | 17.7% |
| #83 | University of Southern California | United States | 84.4 | 62,414 | 759,601 | 4.0% |
| #84 | Harbin Institute of Technology | China | 84.4 | 84,428 | 1,229,989 | 41.9% |
| #85 | Xi'an Jiaotong University | China | 84.4 | 87,384 | 1,247,998 | 30.4% |
| #86 | University of Alberta | Canada | 84.3 | 65,124 | 747,685 | 0.7% |
| #87 | Nanjing University | China | 84.1 | 67,196 | 971,606 | 26.7% |
| #88 | Lund University | Sweden | 84.1 | 59,696 | 636,218 | 16.0% |
| #89 | Emory University | United States | 84.0 | 65,958 | 808,961 | 6.6% |
| #90 | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | United States | 84.0 | 63,587 | 700,433 | 12.7% |
| #91 | Ghent University | Belgium | 83.9 | 47,522 | 616,620 | 3.5% |
| #92 | Queen Mary University of London | United Kingdom | 83.9 | 41,746 | 581,929 | 15.3% |
| #93 | Pennsylvania State University | United States | 83.9 | 67,548 | 757,529 | -0.8% |
| #94 | University of Pittsburgh | United States | 83.9 | 67,694 | 840,253 | 7.5% |
| #95 | University of Maryland, College Park | United States | 83.9 | 49,484 | 634,761 | 9.6% |
| #96 | California Institute of Technology | United States | 83.9 | 32,692 | 475,971 | -1.0% |
| #97 | The Ohio State University | United States | 83.9 | 72,788 | 800,805 | 1.7% |
| #98 | Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College | China | 83.9 | 98,049 | 1,073,695 | 10.0% |
| #99 | Southeast University | China | 83.8 | 70,340 | 1,033,621 | 41.3% |
| #100 | University of Liverpool | United Kingdom | 83.8 | 64,397 | 617,187 | 33.0% |
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.