Quantitative Analysis of U.S. News & World Report University Rankings

This chapter reviews the impact of U.S. News university rankings in science and culture. Section 12.1 recounts the magazine’s ranking history and recent activity. Section 12.2 explains methodology from the BGU ranking. The scientific relevance of U.S. News university rankings is developed by means of a literature review in Section 12.3. The first part of Section 12.3 is a Scientometric review of 233 documents related to U.S. News rankings. Questions asked include, Who publishes about U.S. News? Which academic disciplines research U.S. News? Where is research on U.S. News published? The second part of Section 12.3 organizes the contents of the articles to understand perspectives and preoccupations around the rankings. The story would not be complete without a supporting cast; U.S. News is compared with other international rankings in Section 12.4. Finally, this chapter concludes in Section 12.5 by predicting future directions for global university rankings and U.S. News in particular.