Webometrics: a Tool to Assess the Scientific Assets of Universities

Universities are in effect acquiring two key dimensions, i.e. offline and online. Offline educational efforts are being currently monitored by the Russian Federation Ministry for Education and Science and the Federal Education and Science Supervision Agency. The Education Ministry oversees each institution’s role in developing the country’s educational and scientific potential, while the share that Russian universities contribute to the international scientific and educational community can be observed through several ranking systems. In an increasingly globalized world and through help of the Internet, more and more information is becoming accessible. At present we also have Webometrics at our disposal, a unique ranking tool to measure the research activities of any institution of higher education.

Universities are in effect acquiring two key dimensions, i.e. offline and online. Offline educational efforts are being currently monitored by the Russian Federation Ministry for Education and Science and the Federal Education and Science Supervision Agency. The Education Ministry oversees each institution’s role in developing the country’s educational and scientific potential, while the share that Russian universities contribute to the international scientific and educational community can be observed through several ranking systems. In an increasingly globalized world and through help of the Internet, more and more information is becoming accessible. At present we also have Webometrics at our disposal, a unique ranking tool to measure the research activities of any institution of higher education.

The Webometrics Methodology

The Webometrics Ranking of World Universities is a global indicator of university-level scientific and research activities on the Internet. Though the ranking systems, institutions can compare their research outcomes with those of any of their counterparts, provided they meet certain conditions [1].

In the first years following its creation in 2004, Webometrics lagged far behind such advanced and well-known ratings as ARWU, QS and THE due to an underestimation of the importance of university websites, all the more caused by neglect in online postings of research results. But much has changed in recent years, leading to higher education institutions to present their scientific efforts much more frequently online.

Webometrics is designed to encourage information exchanges between scientists all over the world through the publication of their findings on university websites. Notably, Webometrics skips over educational activities and focuses on the presentation of scientific potential on the Internet. Hence, the ranking rests on the completeness of an institution's scientific content displayed on the web rather than on the number of hits or website design.

Webometrics is a Must for Every University

blog.webometrics.org.uk

Webometrics is something each university can benefit from, as it draws attention to scientific results that become available to the global academic community. As a result, we can obtain a clearly outlined contribution of every university to both national and global assets and to international scientific potential. The ranking also points to the practical share of an institution in the international knowledge base that relies entirely on web activity. Through Webometrics, universities can promote their web publications on the Internet and overcome the digital divide.

Russian Universities Lack Representation on Webometrics

There are several reasons why Russian institutions have fallen behind in the rankings, the first one related to attitudes. Institutional directors often avoid global ratings since they are not preset either by the Education Ministry or by institutional charters. Up until 2010–2011, university-wide scientific efforts were largely ignored, as the focus was on higher education for young specialists. However, universities currently have to change track, as educators are increasingly combining instruction and research.

Webometrics is the only ranking device that offers a clear-cut strategy, landmarks and mechanism for a university to grow into a leading educational and research center. But why can’t institutions participating in global rankings rank high in the Webometrics? What’s the problem?

Other objective reasons are also at play. Russian institutions lack both the appropriate logistics and consistent research traditions. Many possess several domains, i.e. two or three websites, that are confusing to users. Naturally, the Webometrics crawler fails to see their scientific content.

Although open access libraries are proliferating and many universities and research centers offer academic papers on their websites without restrictions, Russian educators often worry about the illegitimate use of their intellectual exploits.

Translation poses a separate challenge, since the Berlin principles of university rankings suggest that a minimum of 30 percent of website content should be in English.

Russian Institutions Can Rank High in the Webometrics

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In order to acquire high rankings, universities should operate according to the following guidelines.

1) Development of a single strategy by university presidents and for toward research activities on the basis of psychological and material incentives. This relates to the creation of scientific content, support for its producers and promotion of materials on the web. The more publications a university generates, the higher its Webometrics standing rises, as the website grows in volume and becomes more visible to Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines, as well as to rankers and overall society.

2) Improvement of university websites, which should be seen not as a business card or report to the Education Ministry, but rather as a virtual full-fledged presentation of the scientific findings en masse to the online global network. This requires clear, structured content adjusted to target audiences. As a result, websites will become more accessible and help simplify the Webometrics search of scientific and other content.

Begin the adaptation of websites to the Webometrics system by establishing efficient website groups staffed by at least three specialists, i.e. an administrator, editor and webmaster.

3) Organization and conduct of thematic workshops and conferences that can provide opportunities for offline and online debate. Institutions can invite specialists from other universities, research centers, government bodies and media to take the discussion beyond the university framework and continue the debate among renowned outsiders. With permission from authors, conference and workshop materials could be posted on the website in order to be located by Webometrics. As always, attention needs to be paid to the capabilities of various formats, i.e. Adobe Acrobat (.pdf), Adobe PostScript (.ps and .eps), Microsoft Word (.doc and .docx), Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt and .pptx).

4) Creation and publication of preprints in foreign languages on the university website and foreign thematic online resources following the practice of the Higher School of Economics.

5) Development of mobile applications for iOS and Android platforms (respectively six and twenty million hits daily) for advancing institution’s scientific and educational products.

6) Creation of personal webpages and blogs for directors, educators and students that invariably helps raising the scientific rating of any Russian institution. Blogs should be opened on the university server rather than at outside platforms, with at least 30 percent of scientific content in English.

Webometrics is not Tribute to Fashion but an Objective Trend

Webometrics – World

When aspiring to a high Webometrics rating, universities should build up the educational and scientific content using conference, workshop and roundtable materials, as well as the publication of curricula, monographs, preprints, dissertations and scientific reports. Also of importance are electronic library materials, databases, knowledge bases, copyrighted research materials in blogs and personal pages, multimedia, etc.

Webometrics is a compass to help form a strategy and tactics for developing and improving any ambitious research and educational center. Using the Webometrics as a reference point, institutions can generate novel and reliable methods storing and using scientific and educational information. In fact, this is a new way to establish a knowledge base.

The websites of Russian institutions should be interconnected through external and back references, generating a common national Internet space, which is of course only a matter of time. As for the present, the achievements of Russian institutions and academic communities on Webometrics are still need of significant improvement.

The Advantages of Webometrics for Russian Universities

Participation in the ranking assists universities in attracting the attention of global academic community, governmental resources, potential students (including foreigners), as well as leading experts, some of them from abroad, interested in educational activities, workshops, master classes, etc.

Webometrics makes a website visible, improves research efficiency and motivates researchers to enhance the openness of the university towards the global scientific community. To this end, Russian institutions should place a stronger emphasis on website development. Proceeding from the Webometrics requirements, they must maintain their current scientific indicators and at the same time improve other metrics, i.e. S – website size, V – number of external links to the website and R – file richness [1].

Webometrics is not the Only Rating for Russian Universities to Use

The key flaw of Webometrics is its bias in data gathering that influences the interpretation. As in other global ratings, for the final measurement Webometrics employs an additive convolution, addition ranking rather than quantitative values, summing up of the university positions in rankings across each of the four indicators.

One more defect lies in the absence of the assessment of education quality which exists in other popular ratings, i.e. QS, THE and ARWU. In contrast to these, Webometrics fails to account for faculty-level [2] and overall efficiency. For example, the ratio of total points for other indicators and the full-day faculty is 10 percent according to the ARWU. Webometrics lacks the university internationalization parameter in contrast to the QS and THE, who place the total share of foreign students and educators at 10 percent. These issues are significant for Russian higher education which is on its way towards worldwide quality standards.

Webometrics appears to be the world’s best ranking for assessing an institution’s scientific potential, while the Russian academia and university community have yet to adapt to the high global quality standards in science embedded in the ranking framework.

1. The rating incorporates four indicators.

S (Size) – number of website pages covered by the search engines – 25 percent of the rating, with Google, Yahoo and Bing Search employed for searching.

V (Visibility) – number of unique external references to website pages, with the same search systems employed – 50 percent of the rating.

R (Rich Files) – number of rich files on the website, with files in four formats incorporated, i.e. Adobe Acrobat (.pdf), Adobe PostScript (.ps), Microsoft Word (.doc) and Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt) – 12.5 percent.

Sc (Scholar) – number of pages and references to the institution’s website, with Google Scholar and Scimago (SIR) counting the number of the website materials and references to the website – 12.5 percent.

Webometrics measures the volume of scientific content at the university website on the Internet with the help of Google, Yahoo, Live Search and Exalead (20 percent). With no quality appraisal of the institution’s scientific achievements, the ranking employs a subjective method to objectively display the universities’ scientific activity reflected by its websites, as well as to compare their performance.

2. For example, the number of highly cited researchers working in 21 areas within the QS and THE account for 20 percent. The ratio of the citation index and university personnel, the Nobel Prize or Fields Medal winners in the ARWU account for a total of 40 percent.