The purpose of the ARBU project is to make an academic ranking of researchers, schools and universities from the Balkans based on simple criteria: citations of their faculty members.
The key aspect is to get a general idea of how much each professor is cited on the Google Scholar platform, thereby presenting the picture at the level of universities and faculties as part of them.
The academic ranking of Balkan universities can serve to achieve several important goals:
Firstly, it enables positive competition between professors/researchers from the same scientific field, encouraging them to be better in their work, and publishing scientific papers whose citation rate will increase constantly. This will also improve the rating of the higher education institution where the professors/researchers work.
Secondly, the good reputation of higher education institutions can be a challenge for high school graduates who are looking for a choice of university/faculty where they will continue their higher education. This is especially significant for those graduates who want to study abroad, so the ranking of Balkan universities allows them to get a clear picture of the status of a certain higher education institution that is subject of their interest.
Thirdly, students from the region may consider many factors when deciding which university to choose for their study. In such case, university ranking is one of the most important factors for almost all students.
Fourthly, the academic ranking of the Balkan universities will also be of great benefit to professors/researchers who want to realize a stay at a university/faculty abroad, giving them appropriate information. The same applies to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as doctoral candidates who need to complete a study stay at a higher education institution in a foreign country.
Balkan universities are not that well presented in the three main rankings. There are 9 universities from the Balkans in the TOP 1,000 of the ARWU ranking; namely, 4 Greek universities, 2 Serbian and 1 from Slovenia, Romania, and Croatia. Similar results appear in the QS TOP 1,500 universities ranking where 18 universities from the Balkans are listed, namely: 7 from Greece, 4 from Serbia, 4 from Croatia and 1 from Romania, Slovenia, and Bulgaria. Since there are almost 324 universities in the region, which means that ARWU lists only 2,5% and QS 5,2 %, it means that more than 95% of the universities are simply not on the map.
ARBU will help many students that are considering studying in one of those universities in the region to make a choice.
We have focused on the Balkan region in the wider sense. Our ranking includes; (from West to East): Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Republic of Turkey – its European part, i.e., universities based in the Istanbul region.
Our ranking is based on the number of citations on Google Scholar. As simple as that. What we do is use “all” citations of a researcher. Neither the last five years, nor indexes like h-index or i-10 index.
The ranking is done twice a year; usually at the end of the year and at the end of June.
The ranking is conducted in two ways: a) in general, and b) according to the scientific fields.
Based on the QS and THE classifications (in addition to the Frascati manual and the Frascati classification MK), a sublimated combination of the fields from the already existing classifications was made and our division should be according to the following 7 scientific fields: 1) Natural Sciences, 2) Engineering and Technology, 3) Medical Sciences and Health, 4) Agricultural and Forestry, 5) Social Sciences, 6) Humanities and Arts and 7) Economics, Business and Organizational Sciences.
The last scientific field, Economics, Business and Organizational Sciences, has been extracted from the “Social Sciences” for a simple reason: numbers show that the number of students applying to these concentrations outnumbers all other social sciences.
If a professor (researcher) has not key words on their Google Scholar profile, they can be categorized by the field from the faculty where he/she works.
A professor (researcher) who has no key words/interests and the faculty where they work is not specified, may appear in the overall ranking of the countries and universities, but will not be categorized in one of the 7 scientific fields.
BALKAN Level
1) Ranking of the Balkan universities
2) Ranking of the Balkan universities in each of the seven scientific fields
3) Ranking of the Balkan professors
4) Ranking of the Balkan professors according to the seven scientific fields
5) Ranking of the Balkan Academies of Science
Country level
1) Country Ranking of the universities
2) Country Ranking of the universities in each of the seven scientific fields
3) Country Ranking of the professors
4) Country Ranking of the professors in each of the seven scientific fields
NOTE: All rankings of schools and universities is a composite result of the individual faculty members from the same school / university.
– Professors, Researchers, Teaching Assistants, Doctoral students regardless of their employment status.
– Everyone who uses the university / school as their primary academic affiliation.
COMPREHENSIVE SELECTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION & RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS
If for any reason an institute or a research facility has been omitted feel free to inform us at
ARBU doesn’t use any data provided by universities or by faculty members. However, for better accuracy in the future, the ARBU team asks all faculty members who do not appear in the database to send an email to [email protected].
We suggest that professors/researchers adhere to the keywords from the official list of ARBU. In case they have an additional keyword on their Google Scholar profile, which is not part of our list, they must inform us at the official email address: [email protected] about that keyword to be added to the official list.
There is a possibility that professors/researchers who are retired or have passed away appear within the displayed data. Therefore, the ARBU team is working on finding a model to resolve such potential discrepancies by reaching out to each university/faculty to certify active professors/researchers from their organization.
As for the first ranking in 2023, we shall send an official memo to the respected institutions, so that they can confirm the data we have gathered, including but not limited to: 1) List of professors and researchers, 2) Departments, 3) Any subsidiaries, or 4) any other data that the institutions seem to be relevant.
However, any information from the institutions shall be rigorously checked by the ARBU team.
If the institution(s) don’t reply, the ARBU team will publish the data gathered through its research.
The reliability of the information that we publish is always most important to us. Our methodology is very simple: to ensure there is no confusion during the ranking process for anybody, whatsoever.
We are and we will always be transparent in our choice of indicators.
The transparency of ARBU consists in the fact that everyone will have access to our rankings on the website. The ranking process is very easy to understand, i.e., it goes from “best” to “less good” professor/researcher and university/faculty. Our ranking allows the physical and legal entities that are part of it, to make individual comparative analyses of their own success, in a very simple way.
We see no value in keeping the methodology consistent for the sake of tracking yearly changes in the position of an individual university while sacrificing opportunities for improvement.
In the ensuing years, the Academic Council might reconsider combining the Google Scholar data with data from other available databases, including but not limited to: 1) Clarivate Web of Science, 2) Scopus, 3) PubMed or other databases.
Another avenue of thought is to consider adding qualitative and survey-based data. This will depend on the funding available through a research project, or as seed funding.
The purpose of this Ethical Statement is to preserve the dignity, reputation and integrity of the members of the ARBU team.
It also serves to strengthen the trust of all individuals in the work of the ARBU team.
The ARBU team undertakes to work honestly, conscientiously, expertly, responsibly, impartially, professionally and ethically, to fulfill their obligations flawlessly, and to follow the principles of objectivity, thoughtfulness, correctness, dialogue and tolerance in their actions.
In every aspect of our work, we will observe all ethical and moral norms, while not allowing a conflict of interest to arise, nor bias to prevail in the process of ranking any professor/researcher or university/faculty.