Submitted:
23 December 2025
Posted:
24 December 2025
Read the latest preprint version here
Abstract
Keywords:
Introduction
“Rank correlation shows that correlation is low with THE and QS. This may have been expected as they are partially survey-based and partially based on bibliometric indicators. The correlation with Scimago and the Leiden Ranking, which are based only on bibliometric indicators is better. In fact, correlation is best with the Leiden ranking (~ 0.7) which also has a size-independent variant.”
“However, their technical limitations such as duplicated profiles, spurious citations, and possible manipulations, make advisable that the use of these citation indexes in research evaluation will be jointly other citation databases that permit to detect biases or gaps that could under value the analysis of an institution, discipline, or author. As many of these limitations are probably due to the novelty of these platforms, it can be expected that future developments would improve these services and they became stronger competitors of the actual subscription-based citation databases.”
“Firstly, Redundant profiles, which increased their citation and rank to produce false results. Secondly, the exclusion of theses and dissertation documents to retrieve the actual publications to count for citations. Thirdly, the elimination of falsely owned articles from scholars’ profiles.”
- a)
- Incorrect identification of the title of the document;
- b)
- Ghost authors;
- c)
- Book reviews indexed as books;
- d)
- Incorrect attribution of documents to authors;
- e)
- Failing to merge all versions of a same document into one record;
- f)
- Grouping different editions of the same book in a single record;
- g)
- Improper attribution of citations to a document;
- h)
- Duplicate citations;
- i)
- Missing citations;
- j)
- Duplicate profile;
- k)
- Variety of document types (including non-academic documents);
- l)
- Inclusion of missattributed documents in the profile;
- m)
- Deliberate manipulation of documents and citations in Google Scholar;
- n)
- Duplicate documents in profiles;
- o)
- Incorrectly merged documents;
- p)
- Unclean document titles;
- q)
- Missing or uncommon areas of interest.
New Methodology for Calculating the Webometrics University Ranking and Its Resource Support
Proof of Comparability Between the Old and New Webometrics University Ranking Calculation Methodologies
“To summarize, items with a Crossref DOI have a 96% chance of appearing in OpenAlex. Journals included in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) without a DataCite DOI (and without a Crossref DOI) have an 81% chance of inclusion in Open Alex. Journals in Scopus, while lacking a Crossref DOI and absent from DOAJ also have an 81% chance of appearing in OpenAlex.”
In the Top-100 Webometrics University Ranking, the correlation coefficients with adjacent rankings in time are extremely high (Spearman’s ρ = 0.991, p < 0.001), indicating remarkable stability of leading universities. Institutions in this layer tend to retain their positions over time, which is consistent with the idea that once an institution enters the global elite, it can remain there indefinitely due to accumulated prestige, resources, and visibility.
Comparison of Google Scholar and OpenAlex Services and Reasons for Switching to OpenAlex When Calculating Webometrics University Ranking
“Google Scholar: One of the most important academic search engines due to its estimated size (389 million) and age (2004), it obtains data directly from the web. Special agreements with publishers allow it to extract citations and content information from paywalled journals. Its search interface can also access books (Google Books) and patents (Google Patents);
OpenAlex: This is the newest service (2022). It was created by OurResearch, a nonprofit organization that recovered the defunct Microsoft Academic Graph (203 million) to implement a new open product. The core of OpenAlex was then set up by Microsoft Academic Graph, with the addition of data from other open sources such as Crossref, PubMed, and ORCID. OpenAlex now indexes 240 million publications.”
“GS and OpenAlex therefore have the potential to serve as first-choice discovery mechanisms as long as their interfaces and subject-search capabilities meet the user’s requirements.”
The Importance of Establishing and Maintaining Institutional and Personal GSCPs
- 1. Visibility and reach: Google Scholar remains one of the most popular and accessible search engines for scientific literature worldwide. Many researchers, students, and even ordinary users start their search there. A well-maintained GSC profile for a university or individual researcher significantly increases their visibility and chances of being found, and improving the visibility of publications increases the likelihood of them being cited.
- 2. Popularity and habit: For many researchers, GSC is the de facto tool for tracking their own citations and searching for literature. It would be unwise to ignore such a large audience and user habit.
- 3. Alternative assessment: Although Webometrics is changing its methodology, GSC provides its own citation metric, which differs from OpenAlex (due to its broader coverage of sources) but indirectly influences it. This gives the university another perspective for assessing its scientific influence.
- 4. Attracting talent and partnerships: Researchers, students, and partners often use GSC to assess the scientific activity of the university and its staff. Maintaining up-to-date profiles helps demonstrate the strength of the university's scientific community.
- 5. Internal monitoring and self-assessment: Universities can use GSC data for internal monitoring of the publication activity and citation rates of their faculties and researchers, supplementing information from other databases.
- 6. Reputation management: An active and well-structured GSC profile helps the university manage its online reputation and present its scientific activities in the most favourable light.
Conclusion
References
- Aguillo. Ranking Web of Universities (webometrics.info); 2025. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Aguillo. Ranking Web of Universities (webometrics.info); 2025. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Aguillo, I. F.; Granadino, B.; Ortega, J. L.; Prieto, J. A. F. Scientific research activity and communication measured with cybermetrics indicators. Journal of the American Society for information science and technology 2006, 57(10), 1296–1302. Available online: https://isidroaguillo.webometrics.info/sites/default/files/publicaciones/Aguillo2006Scientific_research_activity_and_communication_measured_with_cybermetric_indicators..pdf. [CrossRef]
- Basu, A.; Malhotra, D.; Seth, T.; Kumar Muhuri, P. Global Distribution of Google Scholar Citations: A Size-independent Institution-based Analysis. Journal of Scientometric Research 2019, 8(2), 72–78. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Buinytska, O.; Hrytseliak, B.; Smirnova, V. Rating as assessment tool of quality and competitiveness of university. Open educational e-environment of modern University 2018, 4, 16–32. Available online: https://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/24061/. [CrossRef]
- Chavarro, D.; Alperin, J. P.; Willinsky, J. On the Open Road to Universal Indexing: OpenAlex and Open Journal Systems. Quantitative Science Studies 2025, 1–28. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Connor, J. Google Scholar citations open to all. 2011. Available online: http://googlescholar.blogspot.com/2011/11/google-scholar-citations-open-to-all.html.
- Delgado-Quirós, L.; Ortega, J. L. Completeness degree of publication metadata in eight free-access scholarly databases. Quantitative Science Studies 2024, 5(1), 31–49. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Gusenbauer, M. Google Scholar to overshadow them all? Comparing the sizes of 12 academic search engines and bibliographic databases. Scientometrics 118 2019, 177–214. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Imran, A.; Pasta, M.Q. A Qualitative Study of Bibliographic Data Sources and Retrieval Mechanisms for Computational Research. 2024 26th International Multi-Topic Conference (INMIC), Karachi, Pakistan, 2024; pp. 1–6. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Jacso, P. As we may search—comparison of major features of the Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar citation-based and citation-enhanced databases. Current science 2005, 89(9), 1537–1547. Available online: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24110924.
- Jasko, P. Google Scholar Author Citation Tracker: is it too little, too late? Online Information Review 2012, 36(1), 126–141. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Martín-Martín, A.; Orduna-Malea, E.; Ayllón, J. M.; Delgado López-Cózar, E. The counting house: measuring those who count. Presence of Bibliometrics, Scientometrics, Informetrics, Webometrics and Altmetrics in the Google Scholar Citations, ResearcherID, ResearchGate, Mendeley & Twitter. EC3 Working Papers, 21. 19th of January 2016. 60 pages, 12 tables, 35 figures. Available online: https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1602/1602.02412.pdf.
- Mingers, J.; O’Hanley, J. R; Okunola, M. Using Google Scholar institutional level data to evaluate the quality of university research. Scientometrics 2017, 113(3), 1627–1643. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Moskovkin, V.; Yawei, L.; Sadovski, M. Identification of leading Russian universities without profiles in Google Scholar citation. Alma Mater. 2019, 1, pp. 10–15. Available online: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331150996_Moskovkin_VM_Identifikacia_vedusih_rossijskih_universitetov_s_otsutstvuusimi_v_Google_Scholar_Citation_profilami_VM_Moskovkin_Lu_Avej_MV_Sadovski_Alma_mater_-_2019_-_No1-_S_10-15_Identification_of_lea#fullTextFileContent.
- Moskovkin, V. M.; Serkina, O. V. Quantitative Frequency Analysis of Google Scholar Citation and Top 10% Most Cited Scopus Papers Profiles for Asian University Webometrics Ranking. Informology 2024, 3(2), 11–32. Available online: https://www.informology.org/2024/v3n2/a36.pdf.
- Next Steps for Microsoft Academic – Expanding into New Horizons. Microsoft Academic Blog. Published May 4, 2021/Updated June 24, 2021. Available online: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/articles/microsoft-academic-to-expand-horizons-with-community-driven-approach/.
- Ortega, J.L.; Aguillo, I.F. Microsoft academic search and Google scholar citations: Comparative analysis of author profiles. Journal of the Assotiation for Information Science and Technology 2014, 65(6), 1149–1156. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Scheidsteger, T.; Haunschild, R. Which of the metadata with relevance for bibliometrics are the same and which are different when switching from Microsoft Academic Graph to OpenAlex? Profesional de la información 2023, 32(2), e320209. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Ul Sabah, N.; Khan, M.M.; Talib, R.; Anwar, M.; Malik, M.S.A.; et al. Google Scholar University Ranking Algorithm to Evaluate the Quality of Institutional Research. Computers, Materials & Continua 2023, 75(3), 4955–4972. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Walters, W. H. Comparing conventional and alternative mechanisms of discovering and accessing the scientific literature. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2025, 122(27), e2503051122. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Zhang, L.; Kumaran, M. STEM Librarians’ Presence on Academic Profile Websites. Science & Technology Libraries 2023, 42(2), 247–263. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
| University | WR Jan 2025 | WR July 2025 | WRJan./WRJuly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine (USA) | 267 | 45 | 5.93 |
| University of Birmingham (UK) | 485 | 116 | 4.18 |
| Leiden University (Netherlands) | 528 | 146 | 3.62 |
| University of Minnesota Twin Cities (USA) | 724 | 264 | 2.74 |
| Hong Kong University of Science & Tech. (Hong Kong) | 812 | 280 | 2.9 |
| Weill Medical College, Cornell University (USA) | 1148 | 555 | 2.07 |
| Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal) | 881 | 372 | 2.37 |
| University of Hawaii at Manoa (USA) | 1,099 | 492 | 2.23 |
| Universite du Quebec (Canada) | 1,036 | 601 | 1.72 |
| Swinburne University of Technology (Australia) | 963 | 433 | 2.17 |
| Nanjing Agricultural University (China) | 1,189 | 519 | 2.29 |
| Technische Universitat Wien (Austria) | 1,201 | 516 | 2.33 |
| Universidad de Navarra (Spain) | 1,254 | 585 | 2.14 |
| Syracuse University (USA) | 1,278 | 637 | 2.01 |
| J.W. Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main (Germany) | 1,340 | 633 | 2.12 |
| University of Florida Health (USA) | 1,251 | 648 | 1.93 |
| Universidade Federal do Bahia (Brazil) | 1,427 | 697 | 2.05 |
| Victoria University of Wellington (Australia) | 1,264 | 613 | 2.06 |
| Royal Holloway University of London (UK) | 1,462 | 783 | 1.87 |
| University of Maine (USA) | 1,332 | 707 | 1.88 |
| Universidad de Valladolid (Spain) | 1,339 | 665 | 2.01 |
| Université de Lyon (France) | 1,481 | 931 | 1.59 |
| Universidade Federal do Ceara (Brazil) | 1,460 | 754 | 1.94 |
| Universidad de Antioquia (Colombia) | 1,656 | 870 | 1.9 |
| Chiba University (Japan) | 1,601 | 790 | 2.03 |
| Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (Germany) | 1,665 | 795 | 2.09 |
| North West University (South Africa) | 1,721 | 892 | 1.93 |
| Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | 1,618 | 918 | 1.76 |
| National University of Sciences & Technology (Pakistan) | 1,658 | 884 | 1.88 |
| Illinois State University (USA) | 1,941 | 1,213 | 1.52 |
| Universidad de Costa Rica (Costa Rica) | 1,869 | 1,091 | 1.71 |
| Universitas Padjadjaran Bandung (Indonesia) | 1,832 | 956 | 1.92 |
| Maynooth University (Ireland) | 1,893 | 1,039 | 1.77 |
| University of Bucharest (Romania) | 1,792 | 940 | 1.91 |
| Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Spain) | 1,504 | 839 | 1.79 |
| Universidad de Leon (Spain) | 1,948 | 1,104 | 1.77 |
| Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain) | 787 | 324 | 2.43 |
| Sciences Po Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (France) | 1,920 | 1374 | 1.4 |
| Universidad Europea de Madrid (Spain) | 1,908 | 1,148 | 1.66 |
| University of Regina (Canada) | 1,501 | 810 | 1.85 |
| University | WR Jan 2024 | WR July 2024 | WRJan./WRJuly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Universidad de Sevilla (Spain) | 733 | 285 | 2.57 |
| Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain) | 760 | 266 | 2.86 |
| University of Warsaw (Poland) | 763 | 353 | 2.16 |
| Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) | 846 | 340 | 2.49 |
| Universidade de Coimbra (Portugal) | 871 | 315 | 2.77 |
| Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Colombia) | 1,155 | 577 | 2 |
| Universidade Federal do Sao Paulo (Brazil) | 1,205 | 637 | 1.89 |
| Universidade de Estadual de Maringa (Brazil) | 1,600 | 917 | 1.75 |
| Tabriat Modares University (Iran) | 1,641 | 783 | 2.1 |
| Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (Iran) | 1,662 | 878 | 1.89 |
| Universidad de Jaen (Chile) | 1,664 | 784 | 2.12 |
| Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (Iran) | 1,845 | 892 | 2.07 |
| Universidade Federal do ABC UFABC (Brazil) | 1,877 | 1,178 | 1.59 |
| Asia University Taiwan (Taiwan) | 1,882 | 1,160 | 1.62 |
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. |
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).