Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35322106›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2022

Territorial bias in university rankings: a complex network approach.

Loredana Bellantuono, Alfonso Monaco, Nicola Amoroso, Vincenzo Aquaro, Marco Bardoscia, Annamaria Demarinis Loiotile, Angela Lombardi, Sabina Tangaro, Roberto Bellotti

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
3.4field-weighted citation impact, top 7% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.

Loredana BellantuonoDipartimento di Scienze Mediche di Base, Neuroscienze e Organi di Senso, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70124, Bari, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-1333-2675
Alfonso MonacoIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, 70125, Bari, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-5968-8642
Nicola AmorosoIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, 70125, Bari, Italy. nicola.amoroso@uniba.it.
Vincenzo AquaroDivision for Public Institutions and Digital Government, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), New York, NY, 10017, USA.
Marco BardosciaBank of England, London, EC2R 8AH, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-0945-3543
Annamaria Demarinis LoiotileDipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica e dell'Informazione, Politecnico di Bari, 70125, Bari, Italy.
Angela LombardiIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, 70125, Bari, Italy.
Sabina TangaroIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, 70125, Bari, Italy.
Roberto BellottiIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, 70125, Bari, Italy.ORCID 0000-0003-3198-2708
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari · ITUnited Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs · USUniversity College London · GBUniversity of Bari Aldo Moro · IT

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

University rankings are increasingly adopted for academic comparison and success quantification, even to establish performance-based criteria for funding assignment. However, rankings are not neutral tools, and their use frequently overlooks disparities in the starting conditions of institutions. In this research, we detect and measure structural biases that affect in inhomogeneous ways the ranking outcomes of universities from diversified territorial and educational contexts. Moreover, we develop a fairer rating system based on a fully data-driven debiasing strategy that returns an equity-oriented redefinition of the achieved scores. The key idea consists in partitioning universities in similarity groups, determined from multifaceted data using complex network analysis, and referring the performance of each institution to an expectation based on its peers. Significant evidence of territorial biases emerges for official rankings concerning both the OECD and Italian university systems, hence debiasing provides relevant insights suggesting the design of fairer strategies for performance-based funding allocations.

Indexed as

UniversitiesBiasHumans

Identifiers

PMID35322106
PMCPMC8943138
OpenAlexW4220820399

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.