World University Rankings 2018 by subject: life sciences methodology

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2018 life sciences subject ranking includes a wide range of narrower subject areas.

The list of subjects used to create this ranking is:

• Agriculture and forestry
• Biological sciences
• Veterinary science
• Sport science

Different weights and measures

The subject tables employ the same range of 13 performance indicators used in the overall World University Rankings 2018, brought together with scores provided under five categories.

However, the overall methodology is carefully recalibrated for each subject, with the weightings changed to suit the individual fields.

The weightings for the life sciences ranking are:

• Teaching: the learning environment

  27.5 per cent
• Research: volume, income and reputation

  27.5 per cent
• Citations: research influence
  
35 per cent
• International outlook: staff, students and research
  
7.5 per cent
• Industry income: innovation

  2.5 per cent

Criteria

No institution can be included in the overall World University Rankings unless it has published a minimum of 1,000 research papers over the five years we examine.

For the 11 subject tables, the thresholds are set differently. For life sciences, the threshold drops to 500 papers published in this discipline over the last five years. And we expect an institution to have at least 5 per cent of its staff working in this discipline in order to include it in the subject table.