How Science Explorer measures research

Fractional counting

A work is divided between the institutions and topics on it: a paper from four institutions in two topics gives each institution one eighth of it per topic, and the same fraction of its citations. Totals therefore add up, and large collaborations do not count many times over. OpenAlex's own counts give every institution the whole paper, which is why its numbers are higher.

Excellence: the world top 10%

For each field and publication year, the 10% most-cited works worldwide form the top decile. A place's top-10% rate is the share of its own output that reached it — comparable across fields with very different citation habits.

The quality score

Places and researchers are ranked on one composite: field-normalised excellence (50%), output (30%) and total citations (20%), each converted to a percentile so that no heavy-tailed measure dominates. Institutions need at least 40 fractional works in a field to be ranked in it; below a floor is "not ranked", which is not the same as ranked last.

Recent and all time

Rankings lead with 2015–2022, the most recent years whose citations have had time to accumulate, and show the all-time rank beside it.

Specialisation

The location quotient compares the share of a place's research in a field with the world's share. Above 1.0 means it does more of that field than its size predicts.

Limits

Researcher identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges different people or splits one person. Institution links are missing for some works. Citations keep accruing, so recent years are provisional.