<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><sec id="j_jdis-2018-0015_s_005_w2aab3b8c24b1b7b1aab1c15b1Aa"><h3>Purpose</h3><p>To get a better understanding of the way in which university rankings are used.</p></sec><sec id="j_jdis-2018-0015_s_006_w2aab3b8c24b1b7b1aab1c15b2Aa"><h3>Design/methodology/approach</h3><p>Detailed analysis of the activities of visitors of the website of the CWTS Leiden Ranking.</p></sec><sec id="j_jdis-2018-0015_s_007_w2aab3b8c24b1b7b1aab1c15b3Aa"><h3>Findings</h3><p>Visitors of the Leiden Ranking website originate disproportionally from specific countries. They are more interested in impact indicators than in collaboration indicators, while they are about equally interested in size-dependent indicators and size-independent indicators. Many visitors do not seem to realize that they should decide themselves which criterion they consider most appropriate for ranking universities.</p></sec><sec id="j_jdis-2018-0015_s_008_w2aab3b8c24b1b7b1aab1c15b4Aa"><h3>Research limitations</h3><p>The analysis is restricted to the website of a single university ranking. Moreover, the analysis does not provide any detailed insights into the motivations of visitors of university ranking websites.</p></sec><sec id="j_jdis-2018-0015_s_009_w2aab3b8c24b1b7b1aab1c15b5Aa"><h3>Practical implications</h3><p>The Leiden Ranking website may need to be improved in order to make more clear to visitors that they should decide themselves which criterion they want to use for ranking universities.</p></sec><sec id="j_jdis-2018-0015_s_010_w2aab3b8c24b1b7b1aab1c15b6Aa"><h3>Originality/value</h3><p>This is the first analysis of the activities of visitors of a university ranking website.</p></sec></abstract>

PurposeTo get a better understanding of the way in which university rankings are used.Design/methodology/approachDetailed analysis of the activities of visitors of the website of the CWTS Leiden Ranking.FindingsVisitors of the Leiden Ranking website originate disproportionally from specific countries. They are more interested in impact indicators than in collaboration indicators, while they are about equally interested in size-dependent indicators and size-independent indicators. Many visitors do not seem to realize that they should decide themselves which criterion they consider most appropriate for ranking universities.Research limitationsThe analysis is restricted to the website of a single university ranking. Moreover, the analysis does not provide any detailed insights into the motivations of visitors of university ranking websites.Practical implicationsThe Leiden Ranking website may need to be improved in order to make more clear to visitors that they should decide themselves which criterion they want to use for ranking universities.Originality/valueThis is the first analysis of the activities of visitors of a university ranking website.

Analyzing the activities of visitors of the Leiden Ranking website

Journal of Data and Information Science

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

{"article-title":"Analyzing the activities of visitors of the Leiden Ranking website"}

PurposeTo get a better understanding of the way in which university rankings are used.Design/methodology/approachDetailed analysis of the activities of...

Analyzing the activities of visitors of the Leiden Ranking website

Article Category: Research Paper

Published Online: Nov 22, 2018

Page range: 81 - 98

Received: Jul 14, 2018

Accepted: Oct 30, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2018-0015

Keywords
CWTS Leiden Ranking, University ranking, University ranking website, Web log analysis

© 2018 Nees Jan van Eck, Ludo Waltman, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Analyzing the activities of visitors of the Leiden Ranking website

Article Category: Research Paper

Published Online: Nov 22, 2018

Page range: 81 - 98

Received: Jul 14, 2018

Accepted: Oct 30, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2018-0015

KeywordsCWTS Leiden Ranking, University ranking, University ranking website, Web log analysis

© 2018 Nees Jan van Eck, Ludo Waltman, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
CWTS Leiden Ranking, University ranking, University ranking website, Web log analysis