A study by Nazarbayev University researchers has been featured in University World News for its contribution to the global debate on how university research performance is measured.
The study, “Is field-weighted citation impact fit for purpose? Sensitivity, structural bias, and implications for global university rankings,“ by Alexey Remizov, Saule Sadykova, and Prof. Shazim Ali Memon, was recently published in Scientometrics.
The researchers examined the Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI)—a citation metric widely used in international rankings, including the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. The indicator compares how often a university’s research is cited relative to the global average in the same field.
Analyzing more than 230,000 publications from leading universities worldwide, the team found that FWCI scores can be influenced by factors beyond research quality, such as publication type, subject classification, open-access publishing, and large international collaborations. The findings were confirmed using data of 100 universities from the 1,000 ranked in the Times Higher Education World University Subject Rankings 2025, suggesting that these patterns are widespread rather than limited to a small group of institutions.
The paper also proposes methodological refinements that could improve the robustness and interpretability of the indicator.
The research contributes to the ongoing international discussion about how universities should be evaluated and highlights the importance of using fair and transparent methods to assess research performance.
