Leiden 2023, UPCité remains 1st French university for Publication Impact

Université Paris Cité is ranked the first French university and 35th university worldwide for its publication impact according to the new Leiden rankings published on June 21st by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS). 

The overall ranking includes 1,411 institutions from 72 different countries, an increase of 93 institutions and four countries comparted to the 2022 edition.

Université Paris Cité has 5,381 publications among the top 10% most cited in the world¹ over the 2018-2021 period. This result illustrates both the vitality of publication activities and the impact of the scientific output of Université Paris Cité’s research teams. The university is the number one French institution, followed by Sorbonne Université, ranked 40th and Université Paris-Saclay, 68th in the worldwide.

These 5,381 publications are attributed from the most to the least represented, to the following disciplines:

1. Biomedical Sciences and Health
2. Physics and Engineering Sciences
3. Life and Earth Sciences
4. Mathematics and Computer Science
5. Humanities and Social Sciences

Out of the 33 French institutions ranked in 2023, three make it to the top of the list:

• CY Cergy Paris Université: 721st worldwide and 24th in France
• Bordeaux INP: ranked 844th worldwide and 29th in France
• Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne: 972nd worldwide and 33rd in France

By ranking 13 of the 16 institutions stemming from the clustering policy, Leiden is showcasing the success of the new French university models,” says Sylvie Retailleau, Minister of Higher Education and Research.

¹ According to a non-fractional counting method, i.e. not divided by the number of co-signatory universities.

Methodology of the Leiden rankings

The Leiden rankings are based on bibliometric indicators linked to scientific publications. The identification of these is supported by the bibliographic database of the Web of Science, Core Collection produced by Clarivate Analytics and on the enhancements by scientists of the Centre for Science and Technology Studies of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. For this year’s rankings, the articles and reviews are based on publications for the period from 2018 to 2021 in international magazines grounded in subject matters. By major themes, the indicators are broken down based on the number of citations amongst 1%, 5%, 10% or 50% of the articles the most cited worldwide. In addition to these indicators related to scientific impact, indicators on collaborations and open science are also available.