The University of Montpellier reaffirms its scientific standing in the 2023 Leiden Ranking
The University of Montpellier continues to climb the ranks both nationally and internationally according to the CWTS Leiden Ranking and is approaching the global Top 50 in Earth and Life Sciences. This ranking provides important insights into the scientific performance of more than 1,500 leading universities worldwide. It thus provides a clear picture of the volume and impact of our researchers’ scientific output by examining the number of publications in scientific journals and their citations by other national and international scientists.
The University of Montpellier ranks among the top 10 in the country…
Nationally, the University of Montpellier ranks6th intotal scientific publications and4th among the top 10% most-cited publications (the “Top 10%”). Based on the “Top 10%” criterion, the University of Montpellier ranks as thetop university outside of Paris. It is also thetop university in the country in the field of “Life and Earth Sciences,” whether measured by total number of publications or by the “Top 10%” criterion.
This outstanding national ranking is mirrored at the European level: the University of Montpellier ranks9th in terms of publication volume (12th in the “Top 10%”) in the “Life and Earth Sciences” field, and59th(54th in the “Top 10%”) across all scientific fields.
… and ranked among the top 50 in the world in Earth and Life Sciences!
Finally, among the thousands of universities worldwide, the University of Montpellier also ranks highly: around200th overall (225th by volume;196th in the “Top 10%”) and close to50th place in “Life and Earth Sciences” (62ndby volume,51st in the “Top 10%”). This last point is simply remarkable: approaching the group of the world’s top 50 universities in this key field for the future can be considered a true achievement for our scientific community. Here we can fully appreciate the synergy at work within the strategic partnership that unites the University of Montpellier and its 15 partners (CNRS, INRAE, INRIA, IRD, Inserm, BRGM, CEA, CIRAD, Ifremer, ENSCM, Institut Agro, CIHEAM, Montpellier University Hospital, Nîmes University Hospital, ICM).
“Last year, the University of Montpellier confirmed its rise into the top 200 of the world’s best universities in the Shanghai Ranking. Today, the same is true of the Leiden Ranking, demonstrating the University of Montpellier’s steady progress in international rankings. “All of this is due to the collective work carried out at the Montpellier campus to achieve greater recognition of the excellence of our researchers’ scientific output. We are firmly committed to further strengthening the global impact of our research,” said Philippe Augé, President of the University of Montpellier.
A multidimensional approach
Established in 2011, the ranking produced by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University measures the scientific reputation of institutions and their research collaboration. The 2023 ranking evaluates more than 1,500 institutions and covers five disciplinary fields: medicine, physics, life and earth sciences, mathematics, and humanities and social sciences.
The Leiden Ranking is based on scientific publications, particularly articles published in scientific journals, which enable it to select sophisticated bibliometric indicators in order to generate results and analyze university rankings according to one or more selected indicators. It also draws on publications indexed in the Web of Science database produced by Clarivate Analytics.
The Leiden Ranking offers a multidimensional approach to academic performance. For each combination of a university, a main subject area, and a time period, the ranking provides values for 50 indicators across four broad categories of information: the number of publications and the extent to which these publications are cited by other works, the extent of collaboration between different universities, open access to publications, and the gender of authors. Each year, the ranking is recalculated for all previous years using the updated methodology. Compared to other university rankings such as those by Times Higher Education, QS, and ARWU (Shanghai), the Leiden Ranking “aims to promote a more responsible approach to university ranking.” It provides information exclusively on research conducted at universities—research notably reflected in scientific publications and carefully collected data, which form the foundation and ensure the independence of this ranking.