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By Dateline staff

A new CWTS Leiden ranking of research impact puts UC Davis first in the world in the category of life and earth sciences.

This and other 2015 rankings from the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University (Netherlands), are based on Web of Science-indexed publications from 750 major universities, for the years 2010 to 2013. CWTS is the Dutch acronym for Centre for Science and Technology Studies, which has been compiling its research impact rankings since 2007.

UC Davis earned its first-place ranking, ahead of Harvard University and UC Berkeley, in the CWTS Leiden Ranking system’s size-dependent analysis of publication impact, measuring the proportion of a university’s publications in a particular field that are most frequently cited relative to publications from other universities in the same field.

With collaboration as a factor, reflecting the number of papers with authors from more than one institution, UC Davis ranked second in the world in life and earth sciences.

UC Davis placed 26th in publication impact across all scientific fields.

“The 2015 Leiden rankings demonstrate that UC Davis is leading the world in scientific impact across a number of key scientific fields, especially in the life sciences,” said Vice Chancellor Harris Lewin of the Office of Research. “Our faculty has achieved an unparalleled level of excellence, and the Leiden rankings support that we have truly become a global university.”

Government agencies and other funding organizations worldwide use the CWTS Leiden rankings to assess the quality of institutions’ research quality and capabilities.

Earlier this spring, the QS World University Rankings put UC Davis first in the world for agriculture and forestry for the third year in a row, and U.S. News & World Report rated the School of Veterinary Medicine as best in the nation. Last fall, UC Davis took the ninth spot in U.S. News & World Report's 2015 "Best Colleges" report.

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