Stony Brook University Ranks in Top Cluster Worldwide in Research and Knowledge Transfer

Newswise — STONY BROOK, NY, May 15, 2014 – Stony Brook University is ranked in the highest grouping in two categories of the newly released U-Multirank rankings. In the Research category, Stony Brook achieved a top ranking of “A”—“very good”—for citation rates, research publications (both absolute and normalized numbers), and top-cited publications as a percentage of total publications. Under the heading Knowledge Transfer, Stony Brook was again placed in the highest performance grouping—for patents awarded (absolute and normalized numbers) and publications cited in patents. Stony Brook also scored a “B”—“good”—in both the Research category, for interdisciplinary publications as a percentage of total publications, and in Knowledge Transfer, for co-publications with industrial partners as a percentage of total publications—reflecting strong collaborations with business, industry, and economic development bodies. “This ranking system is an important and valuable new resource – primarily for students – to assess research institutions worldwide,” said President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D. “Stony Brook is proud to rank so highly among participating universities in this inaugural set of results.” The new U-Multirank rankings are a tool for comparing university performance which include information on more than 850 higher education institutions, over 1,000 colleges and schools within those institutions, and 5,000 study programs from 70 countries. It covers a range of institutions, from small specialized colleges through art and music academies, technical universities, agricultural universities, universities of applied sciences, and comprehensive research universities. U-Multirank assesses institutions based on individual performance measures; it does not produce composite scores and a table of “standings.” Using an interactive Web tool, users specify the type of institutions they wish to compare and the performance areas to include in the comparison. For example, students can stipulate level of degrees offered, subject areas in which the university is active, proportion of graduate and international students, etc. U-Multirank then displays performance information for universities that meet these criteria. The data came from information provided by institutions, bibliometric and patent databases, and surveys of more than 60,000 students. The bibliometric indicators measured the quantity and impact of scientific publications, based on a count of the scientific publications produced by the academic staff of a university and the number of times these are cited in other publications (based on the Thomson Reuters database of academic publications). Editor’s note 1: Most U.S. universities, including Stony Brook, did not participate in rankings for academic fields in 2014." Editor’s note 2: See related story in the May 15, 2014 edition of Science Business:European Union launches new university ranking system