In terms of scholarly contribution, which universities top the list?

In the hopes of inspiring researchers and decision-makers around the world, one research organization recently released the first edition of its online rankings for the best universities in the world.

Although U.S. News recently released its rankings for the Best Global Universities, this list is unique in that its main focus is to measure the impact and contributions of researchers from each higher education institution.

Research.com, a scientific rankings organization, analyzed nearly 167,000 scientist profiles on Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic Graph from universities around the world. Imed Bouchrika, co-founder and chief data scientist at the organization, said they conducted the research based on an increased need for objective data that sheds light on the contributions of researchers at prestigious universities.

“Because of the need to have a transparent methodology based on national and well-established metrics, it’s without a doubt that the main contributor to success for an institution stems from the reputation of its staff,” Bouchrika said in a statement. “Besides, when it comes to tertiary education, research is the thrust for such success.”

Here are some of the key findings from the study:

• U.S. universities represent nearly a quarter of all leading universities.
• California is home to the best universities in the country.
• Harvard University has the highest number of leading scientists.
• Oxford University is the only institution from outside the U.S. that made the top 10.

Without further ado, here’s a look at the top 10 universities worldwide in terms of scholarly contribution and leading researchers.

1. Harvard University: Scholars (2113), Publications (543,418)
2. Stanford University: Scholars (1148), Publications (236.941)
3. University of California, Los Angeles: Scholars (907), Publications (176,105)
4. John Hopkins University: Scholars (805), Publications (178,636)
5. University of Oxford: Scholars (848), Publications (55,084)
6. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor: Scholars (918), Publications (165,129)
7. University of Washington: Scholars (848), Publications (143,864)
8. University of California, San Diego: Scholars (793), Publications (160,435)
9. Columbia University: Scholars (814), Publications (148,000)
10. University of California, Berkeley: Scholars (781), Publications (146,540)

“The rankings of universities based on objective data compiled from top scientists would serve to produce a fair framework for ranking academic institutions where students can have the opportunity to be educated and supervised by leading scholars,” said Bouchrika. “It was unfortunate to spot numerous prestigious universities with a considerable number of leading scientists being poorly ranked by other mainstream ranking providers.”

View the complete list of universities here.

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