Use of scholarly communication and citation-based metrics as a basis for university ranking in developing country perspective

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to use scholarly communication and citation data to rank the universities in a developing country perspective in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach This paper used publication and citation data from Scopus to rank the universities in Bangladesh. The number of papers published in each year during 2008-2018 by the select 33 universities, faculty per capita, the two-year citations and the number cited articles were used to arrive at a yearly weighted score and overall score for each university. The overall score was used to produce the ranking of the universities in Bangladesh. Findings The findings indicate that the ranking system can be implemented at the national level as an annual exercise to rank the higher education institutions in developing country perspective. Originality/value This is the first time an effort has been made to rank the universities in Bangladesh using publication and citation data. The findings of this paper could help policymakers, administrators and academicians to understand how the universities are performing in terms of scholarly activities.