ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author briefs ranking methodology and explores a few key aspects that are specific to the issues around measurement: quality, normalization, and metric complexity. Finally, the author addresses some of the potential future developments of rankings. The first Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings was published in conjunction with QS in 2004. THE was founded in 1971 as a supplement to the Times newspaper, as a journal focused on the world of higher education—a sister publication to the Times Education Supplement. For most universities, a section of data is provided directly–invites universities to submit data to the portal, both at an overall university level and by eight broad subjects. These data provide the first of their three data sources. The second data source is their annual Academic Reputation Survey. This survey is carried out through a random sampling of academics selected from the Scopus database. The final dataset is the Scopus database itself.
