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Galgotias University scored 67 on the research-quality pillar of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2027, compared with 51.5 for the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), according to Hindustan Times. That is a notable difference on one weighted ranking measure—not evidence that Galgotias has a stronger research programme than IISc in every discipline or every sense of research quality.
What the Galgotias–IISc comparison actually says
Hindustan Times reports that, among 143 Indian institutions in THE’s 2027 ranking, Galgotias placed 23rd and IISc 64th on the research-quality pillar. The reported scores—67 and 51.5—are pillar scores, not overall university scores or overall ranks.
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The distinction matters because THE combines five pillars to calculate its overall ranking. A higher score on research quality does not establish that an institution performs better on teaching, research environment, international outlook or industry engagement, and it does not settle which university is stronger across all research fields.
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In the 2027 methodology, research quality accounts for 30% of the overall ranking. It combines four indicators, with citation impact receiving half of the pillar’s weight:
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| Indicator | Share of overall ranking | What it is intended to capture |
|---|---|---|
| Citation impact | 15% | Average citation impact of an institution’s published work, adjusted for subject differences and incorporating country-adjusted and non-country-adjusted citation scores. |
| Research strength | 5% | The 75th percentile of field-weighted citation impact, used as a guide to typical research performance. |
| Research excellence | 5% | An institution’s publications among the worldwide top 10% for field-weighted citation impact, normalised by year, subject and staff. |
| Research influence | 5% | The influence of the papers that cite an institution’s research. |
These definitions come from THE’s 2027 methodology. The system uses 17 performance indicators across five areas, standardises indicator data and combines them using published weights. Research quality is therefore a constructed composite score, not a direct peer review of every research output and not simply a count of publications.
Which publications and citations feed the 2027 measure?
THE says Elsevier supplied bibliometric data covering 19.9 million publications published from 2021 to 2025 and 188.7 million citations collected from 2021 through 2026. The publication types include journal articles, reviews, conference proceedings, books and book chapters. THE says it adjusts citation data for differences between subjects and blends country-adjusted and non-country-adjusted raw citation scores.
That window and adjustment process help explain both the reach and the limits of the indicator. Citation patterns differ between fields, so normalisation is intended to make them more comparable; it does not turn the result into a universal measure of research quality or show how every individual discipline performed.
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Hindustan Times quotes Achal Agrawal, founder of India Research Watch, criticising the research-quality parameter and saying it had produced “absurd results” since 2024. That is an attributed criticism, not independent proof that either university’s score is wrong or that the result was manipulated.
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The same report quotes THE’s Phil Baty explaining that institutional self-citations may be legitimate, but can also be abused through citation networks or coercive citation practices. The report says THE planned changes for the 2028 edition: limiting institutional self-citations, reducing citation impact’s weight and increasing the weights of research strength, excellence and influence. Those were prospective plans in the report, not final published rules; thresholds and calculation details were still to come.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to read the score without overreading it
- Keep the scope specific: 67 versus 51.5 is the reported comparison for THE’s 2027 research-quality pillar, not a verdict on total research output, integrity or institutional standing.
- Separate the pillar from the overall ranking: research quality contributes 30% to the total, while the other four pillars also affect the overall result.
- Look for component-level figures: a broader comparison would examine citation impact, strength, excellence and influence separately, alongside research environment and the overall result, where reliable institution-level values are available.
- Check rank precision: THE displays precise pillar scores for ranked institutions, but overall positions beyond the top 300 are grouped into bands because score differences there are not statistically significant. A pillar score should not be mistaken for an exact overall rank.
- Remember what is not independently established: Hindustan Times is the source for the two headline scores, while THE’s official materials explain the methodology. The available sources do not provide a reproducible institution-level calculation or independent audit of the underlying university data.
The comparison raises a reasonable question about how rankings define and weight “research quality.” It does not, on its own, establish that one university’s research is categorically better or that the scores are erroneous.
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