Re: University ranking

From: Dana Roth <dzrlib_at_LIBRARY.CALTECH.EDU>
Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 15:17:46 -0700

I agree ... ranking Caltech #38 seems odd ...

 

Dana L. Roth
Millikan Library / Caltech 1-32
1200 E. California Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91125
626-395-6423 fax 626-792-7540
dzrlib_at_library.caltech.edu
http://library.caltech.edu/collections/chemistry.htm

From: American Scientist Open Access Forum
[mailto:AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG]
On Behalf Of Yves Gingras
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 8:30 AM
To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
Subject: Re: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM Digest - 6 Aug 2008
to 7 Aug 2008 (#2008-151)

 


Hello all,

This type of ranking is to me clearly a case of crank ranking....

What is THAT supposed to mean? Quality? But of What? In fact it means
not much of anything in terms of academic reality that should be the
basic focus of universities and indicators rerlated to their
missions. The accompanying text of the message seems to imply that
the changes in positions are related  to any kind of improvement of a
university., which is clearly NOT the case.  Worst still, in terms of
interpretation, the text notes that " the UNAM climbs up to the
position number 51, a relevant change from previous number 59." (we
underline) Well... In fact, this changes of 8 positions among a
thousand is in all probability (99.99...) due to a random change from
year to year given the large variance of the sample.

Let us hope those who like constructing indicators wil use their time
to find meaningful ones instead of trying to interpret smalll
variations in pseudo common-sense  indicators (here web hits) which
are not really connected to universities' missions ...

Have a nice day


Yves Gingras
Received on Sat Aug 09 2008 - 00:50:09 BST

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