The comprehensive competitiveness evaluationof American universities in Bridge Engineering

Yuan Wang • Ruimin Ma • Tianhao Tang • Xia Liu • Ping Xie •

Jianxin Wang • Jianxiang Liu • Haideng Zhou • Siwei Zhang

Received: 10 June 2011 / Published online: 28 January 2012� Akademiai Kiado, Budapest, Hungary 2012

Abstract This article explores a method of evaluating the comprehensive competitive-

ness of American universities in Bridge Engineering, which is beneficial for students’

picking up an ideal university for further study in America. Making use of ESI database,

SCI database and EI database as well as the ranking of American universities from U.S.

News and World Report, the author evaluates the comprehensive competitiveness of

American universities in Bridge Engineering, and then develops the ranking of compre-

hensive competitiveness of American universities in Bridge Engineering specialty. From

the ranking, the author reaches the conclusion that American universities such as Uni-

versity of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign and Georgia Institute of Technology and so on, have

comparatively higher international influence and competitiveness in the field of Bridge

Engineering.

Keywords University rankings � American universities � Bridge engineering �Competitiveness � Evaluation

Y. Wang (&) � X. LiuLibrary, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116,People’s Republic of Chinae-mail: wangyuan@cumt.edu.cn

R. MaSchool of Management, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030006, People’s Republic of China

T. TangSchool of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, People’s Republic of China

P. XieLibrary, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212013, People’s Republic of China

J. Wang � J. Liu � S. ZhangFaculty of Safety Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology,Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116, People’s Republic of China

H. ZhouSchool of Mines, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116,People’s Republic of China

123

Scientometrics (2012) 91:693–701DOI 10.1007/s11192-012-0616-x

Introduction

Nowadays, many students aspire to travel abroad for further study. However, the first

question coming to their minds is that which university has the comparatively higher

comprehensive competitiveness to suit their needs. The ranking of global universities is

always the main resource for them to refer to.

On the basis of the data from ESI (Essential Science Indicators) database, the Research

Center for Chinese Science Evaluation of Wuhan University has done a research and

obtained 23 rankings including ranking of research competitiveness in worldwide uni-

versities and ranking of discipline competitiveness in worldwide research institutions

(universities and research institutions included). In these 23 rankings, 22 key disciplines

like ‘‘Engineering’’ in the ranking of discipline competitiveness in worldwide research

institutions in 2009–2010 are included (Network of Science and Education Evaluation in

China 2011).

U.S. News and World Report has released the ranking of some popular areas of study

such as the Ranking of American Universities in Civil Engineering, but there are still some

less popular disciplines which are not included in the research such as Bridge Engineering.

Therefore, by evaluating the comprehensive competitiveness of worldwide universities

with the example of Bridge Engineering in American universities, this paper aims at

searching for ranking methods of worldwide universities which might be useful to college

students.

Evaluation of the comprehensive competitiveness of worldwide universities

Object of evaluation

ESI database, the high-level and authoritative evaluation tool in the world, sets up 22 key

disciplines according to the characteristics of discipline development. Only the total

citations of papers ranking in the top 1% of the U.S. ESI database in recent 11 years can be

included in the ranking list. As for Engineering, there are 1,095 institutions entering the

ranking. American universities among these 1,095 research institutions are the object of

this evaluation (Essential Science Indicators 2010).

Data source

The original data of evaluation is gathered from ESI, U.S. News and World Report, SCI

expanded and EI.

ESI database

Essential Science Indicators (ESI), launched by ISI (Institution for Scientific Information)

in 2001, is a resource that enables researchers to conduct ongoing, quantitative analyses of

research performance and track trends in science. Covering a multidisciplinary selection of

more than 11,000 journals from around the world, this in-depth analytical tool offers data

for ranking scientists, institutions, countries, and journals. Compilation of science per-

formance statistics and science trends data is based on journal article publication counts

and citation data from Thomson Scientific databases. Available as a ten-year rolling file,

694 Y. Wang et al.

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ESI covers 10 million articles in 22 specific fields of research, and is updated every

2 months. The ESI is an analytical tool to assess scientific research performance and track

research trend as it develops. Only those institutions whose total citations of published

papers are in the top 1% can enter the ranking list of ESI discipline. Therefore, the

institutions included in the ranking list of ESI discipline are those enjoying high prestige

and making great contribution to worldwide academic exchange. There are 1,095 insti-

tutions included in the ESI discipline ranking list in the field of Engineering (Huo 2003).

U.S. News and World Report

University specialty evaluation abroad starts earlier than that in China and it is more

normative. The evaluation conducted by media outlets such as U.S. News and WorldReport of America and The Times Higher Education Supplement of U.K, begins to take

shape and has the universal influence. In recent years, U.S. News and World Reportreleases the ranking of Civil Engineering of American universities every year.

SCI database and EI database

The ProQuest Dialog is the biggest international online retrieval system and the leading

supplier of creative information worldwide. It collects more than 600 industrial databases,

including SCI, Science, Chemical Abstracts, and Derwent Biotechnology Abstracts. Papers

on Bridge Engineering in each database can be searched by the ProQuest Dialog. This

paper selects the frequently-used retrieval platform DialogLink-Version 5. DIALINDEX is

a central index to all the databases on Dialog. It allows you to compare the number of

records retrieved by a certain strategy among various databases, thus enabling you to

identify which file(s) contains the information you want.

To start a DIALINDEX search, enter BEGIN 411 in the Type-Ahead Buffer to open the

BEGIN window. The following query sentence is used: bridge and py C 2,000. The

detailed steps are listed as follows. Firstly enter ‘‘b 411’’ in the Type-Ahead Buffer to

display the BEGIN window. Then enter ‘‘alleng’’ in the Set Files text box. Next enter

‘‘bridge and py C 2,000’’ in the Select text box. Finally, click ‘‘Run Search’’. The results

of your DIALINDEX search are displayed in the BEGIN window. Some of the retrieval

results are shown in Table 1 (Databases by Search Options 2011; Dialog Bluesheets 2011).

EI, the US-based Engineering Index database, is one of the most frequently used

abstract index databases. EI database is an essentially significant platform for evaluating

scientific research progress and achievements. Whether or not the paper is collected by EI

database is an important quantified standard for judging the quality of the paper. Another

frequently used index database is the Web of Science, including the following three

citation index databases, i.e., SCI expanded, SSCI and A&HCI.

The number of published papers is an important factor for evaluating the scientific

research productivity and a reflection of the contribution to worldwide academic com-

munication. The scientific research influence can be evaluated according to citations of the

Table 1 The number of recordsretrieved from SCI, EI andINSPEC

Note: the above data are fromDialogLink5 [2011-2-13]

Hits File Name

26381 2 INSPEC 1898–2011/Feb W1

40554 8 Ei Compendex(R) 1884–2011/Feb W1

39494 34 SciSearch(R) Cited Ref Sci 1990–2011/Feb W1

The comprehensive competitiveness evaluation 695

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paper. Therefore, EI database and SCI database are chosen as the sources of the evaluated

data for this paper.

Construction of evaluation index system

Both teaching and research play important roles in the development of a university. The

ranking of U.S. News and World Report (2011) mainly focuses on the teaching situation of

a university, which lacks the evaluation indicators on research. To make up for this

inadequacy, some indicators are imported such as the number of published papers that

stands for research productivity and the citations of them, which are indicative of its

research influence.

The amount of published papers is an important factor for evaluating the scientific

research productivity of the institution. Papers collected by SCI and EI database have been

evaluated by the prestigious experts, so they are of high quality and very influential in the

corresponding discipline. The research influence is measured by the citations of the papers

indexed in the SCI.

Another key task that we must face is the weights assignment. In our practice, we asked

five experts in technology policy or library and information science to assign the weights of

these indicators. Then we took the average value of the weights as the corresponding

weights. The experts all agree that the teaching is as important as the research leading to an

equal weight, i.e. 50%, to them. For the research index, the experts gave bigger weights to

research influence than research productivity, which indicates that the influence index is

more important than that of the productivity. On the basis of the experts’ views, the index

system of comprehensive competitiveness evaluation of American universities is con-

structed as shown in Table 2 (Qiu et al. 2006; Qiu and Ma 2006; Isidro et al. 2010; Mi and

Li 2009; Li and Ren 2007; U.S. News and World Report 2011).

Analytical method and procedure

The main procedure is as follows. The first step is to list the 1,095 institutions included in

the ranking list of Engineering from ESI database and the top 94 American universities of

Civil Engineering issued by U.S. News and World Report in 2010, and then data is

extracted from SCI database and EI database. The last step is to obtain the ranking of

American universities on comprehensive competitiveness in Bridge Engineering specialty.

The detailed analytical procedure is shown in Fig. 1.

Table 2 Weight of each evaluation index of American universities

First levelindex

Second level index Third level index Weight(%)

Teaching Ranking Ranking in the U.S. News and World Report P1 = 50

Research Scientific researchproductivity

Quantity of paper collected in SCI P2 = 15

Quantity of paper collected in EI P3 = 10

Scientific research influence Total citations of paper in SCI P4 = 25

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Evaluation procedure

Evaluation set ‘‘A’’ of data collected from ESI database

The 1,095 institutions included in the ranking list of Engineering in ESI database are those

whose total citations of their papers are in the top 1%, and they all enjoy high prestige in the

field of Engineering. Therefore, the American universities out of these 1,095 institutions are

regarded as set ‘‘A’’. The collecting process is as follows: First, log in to the website of ISI

Web of Knowledge, choose the analytical tool ‘‘Essential Science Indicators’’, next choose

‘‘institution’’, and then choose discipline ‘‘Engineering’’. In this way, the 1,095 institutions

included in the top 1% of Engineering from ESI database and their rankings are acquired.

Select the American universities among these 1,095 institutions as set ‘‘A’’.

Evaluation set ‘‘B’’ of data collected from U.S. News and World Report

In 2010, U.S. News and World Report issued the ranking of Civil Engineering for post-

graduate program in American universities, and then the top 94 universities are selected as

set ‘‘B’’ (U.S. News and World Report 2010).

Evaluation set ‘‘C’’

Through comparative analysis of set ‘‘A’’ and set ‘‘B’’, data shared in both set A and set B

are located, namely, the union of these two sets, which constitutes set ‘‘C’’ of research

competitiveness evaluation of American Bridge Engineering majors. There are 90

American universities in evaluation set ‘‘C’’. These 90 American universities are in the top

1% of the ranking of Engineering discipline from ESI database, and also are the top 94

American universities of Civil Engineering for postgraduates in 2011.

C ¼ A \ B

A: the American universitiesout of these 1095 institutions

No B: 94 American universities

A B : 90 Americanuniversities

Ranking of comprehensive competitiveness ofAmerican universities in bridge engineering

No

Fig. 1 Technology roadmap of object selection

The comprehensive competitiveness evaluation 697

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Collection of papers on Bridge Engineering from SCI database

As for the 90 American universities in evaluation set ‘‘C’’, acquire the amount of papers on

Bridge Engineering of each university from SCI database since 2000. In SCI, the purposes

can be achieved by the following steps: Search for ‘‘bridge’’ in ‘‘Topic’’ field in pull-down

menu to the right of the search box on the initial SCI screen and limit time span from 2000

to 2011. Then select the database SCI expanded, i.e. SCI-E. Then click the button

‘‘Search’’ and obtain the initial results: 42,160 records (papers). However, we should carry

out some refinement in order to get the final results. Firstly, refine the search results from

the aspect of ‘‘Subject Areas’’. Check ‘‘Engineering, Civil’’ and ‘‘Construction and

Building Technology’’. Click ‘‘Refine’’ to get the results: 4,866 records. Secondly, refine

the search results from the aspect of ‘‘Document Types’’. Check ‘‘article’’ and ‘‘pro-

ceedings paper’’. Click ‘‘Refine’’ and get the results: 4,535 records. Thirdly refine the

search results from the aspect of ‘‘Countries/Territories’’. Check ‘‘USA’’;click ‘‘Refine’’

and get the results: 1,974 records, which are the final papers that will be used in next

analysis. Finally, click ‘‘Analyze Results’’ on the results page to go to the Analyze Results

page. Select ‘‘Institution Name’’ to analyze from the list. Then select 2,500 records in the

set that you want to analyze. Show the top 250 results sorted by record count. From the list

of the Results page, the amount of papers of the top 250 American universities can be

viewed. For example, the amount of papers of University of California-San Diego on

Bridge Engineering from SCI database is 56 (ISI Web of Knowledge 2011).

Collection of total citations of papers on Bridge Engineering from SCI database

As for the 90 American universities in evaluation set ‘‘C’’, the author retrieves total

citations of papers on Bridge Engineering of each university from SCI database since 2000.

The citation frequency can reflect the influence of institutions. The high-quality papers can

be retrieved from search results by the Web of Science’s tool of ‘‘Sort by’’ and ‘‘Time

Cited’’, which helps to pin down papers of great influence from varieties of search results.

Therefore their corresponding institutions are clear. For instance, the procedure of

retrieving the total citations of SCI-listed papers on Bridge Engineering in the University

of California-San Diego is shown below.

On the Analyze Results page in 2.5.4, use the check boxes below to view the records.

You can choose to view those selected records. Check ‘‘UNIV CALIF SAN DIEGO’’, click

‘‘View Records’’ to go to the Results page to view the records that contain the selected field

values. On the Results page, click ‘‘Create Citation Report’’, and the result that the sum of

the times cited is 255 can be required. And get back to the Analyze Results page, choose

another university. Click ‘‘View Records’’. Get the sum of the times cited of other uni-

versities by the same method. The search result is that the amount of papers on Bridge

Engineering of University of California-San Diego from SCI database is 56 and the total

citations of these papers is 255 (ISI Web of Knowledge 2011).

Collection of the amount of papers on Bridge Engineering from EI database

As for the 90 American universities in evaluation set ‘‘C’’, acquire the amount of papers on

Bridge Engineering of each university from EI database since 2000.

On the initial EI screen, choose either ‘‘Quick Search’’ or ‘‘Expert Search’’, and com-

bine the searching fields logically. Take University of California-Berkeley for example.

698 Y. Wang et al.

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Choose ‘‘Quick Search’’: Select EI Compendex database. Search for ‘‘bridge or via-

duct’’ in ‘‘Subject/Title/Abstract’’ field from the Search in pull-down menu to the right of

the search box. Search for ‘‘University of California’’ in ‘‘Author affiliation’’ field. Search

for ‘‘Berkeley’’ in ‘‘Author affiliation’’ field. Combine terms using AND (results contain all

specified terms). Limit time span from 2000 to 2011. Sort by relevance. Autostemming is

ON. Click ‘‘Search’’ and get the results: 359 records. Then refine results for the first time.

After performing the initial search, lists of facets appear on the right side of the search

results screen. These facets (categories) include Author, Classification code, Country and

so on. Under each facet, a list of the most recurring terms in that category will appear in

descending order. Each facet displays the first 10 items that are relevant to your search.

Click ‘‘More’’ to find further information within each facet. The 10 items most relevant to

Bridge Engineering are selected as shown in Table 3 (Engineering Village 2 2011).

According to ten items listed above, Check these 10 boxes under the Classification code

facets and click ‘‘Include’’, and the most relevant terms in Classification code that you

selected will be added to your initial search terms, therefore refine the results set and get

the results: 128 records. Then Refine the results again. Check ‘United States’ box under the

Country facets and click ‘‘Include’’. The United States will be added to your initial search

terms, therefore the final search results are 108 records (Engineering Village 2 2011).

It is noted that there is another way to gather the expected data, i.e., by choosing the

submenu ‘‘Expert Search’’. In Expert Search, the search terms are linked using Boolean

operators. A single search box is provided in Expert Search. Use the ‘‘Within’’ command,

WN, and a field code to execute a search within a specific field. Field codes for EI database

are shown in Table 4.

Query sentence is as follows. [((Bridge or viaduct) WN KY) AND ((University of Cal-

ifornia) WN AF)] AND ((Berkeley) WN AF)) and {United States} WN CO and ({401.1} OR

{409} OR {723.5} OR {421} OR {408.1} OR {408} OR {422} OR {422.2} OR {484.1} OR

{545.3}) WN CL. By this query sentence, we also can obtain the result: there are 108 papers

published by University of California-Berkeley (Engineering Village 2 2011).

Calculation of evaluation score of the 90 American universities

As for the 90 American universities in evaluation set ‘‘C’’, the evaluation score of each

university can be obtained with the following formula.

Table 3 Classifications relevantto Bridge Engineering (top 10)

No. Classification Correspondingcode

1 Bridges 401.1

2 Civil engineering, general 409

3 Computer applications 723.5

4 Earthquake measurements and analysis 484.1

5 Steel 545.3

6 Strength of building materials; mechanicalproperties

421

7 Strength of building materials; test equipmentand methods

422

8 Strength of building materials : test methods 422.2

9 Structural design 408

10 Structural design, general 408.1

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SK1 ¼X4

i¼1

PiXi ¼ 0:5X1 þ 0:15X2 þ 0:1X3 þ 0:25X4

In this formula, SK1 stands for the evaluation score, Xi (i = 1, 2, 3, 4) stands for the

standardized score of the ith index and Pi (i = 1, 2, 3,4) stands for the weight of the ithindex. The standardized method is that the value of each cell divides the maximum of the

column. For the X1, the ranking is dealt with like this; The first is regarded as 100 score and

the last (i.e. 191st) as 15 score. So the linear regression equation between the order (X) and

the score (Y) is built as below.

itY ¼ � 17

38xþ 100

17

38

The higher the total score is, the higher the scientific competitiveness of the university is.

Therefore, the ranking of universities can be obtained by calculating the total score of each

university.

Results of discipline evaluation

As for the 90 American universities in evaluation set ‘‘C’’, rank them according to the total

score of each university and get the ranking of research competitiveness on Bridge

Engineering of American universities, as shown in Table 5.

Table 4 Partial EI databasesearch codes

Field Code

Subject/title/abstract KY

Affiliation AF

Country of origin CO

Classification code CL

Table 5 Ranking of research competitiveness on Bridge Engineering of American universities (top 10)

Rank College name Final score

1 University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 77.68

2 Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 73.34

3 Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 73.22

4 University of California—Davis, Davis, CA 69.77

5 University of California—San Diego, La Jolla, CA 69.03

6 University of California—Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 67.98

7 Columbia University in the City of New York, New York, NY 65.79

8 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 64.22

9 Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 63.94

10 The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 63.13

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Conclusions

Based on scientometrics, this article filters the ranking of comprehensive competitiveness

of American universities in Bridge Engineering. The information in Table 5 shows that the

universities, like University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign and Georgia Institute of

Technology, are comparatively more influential and competitive in the field of Bridge

Engineering.

This article adopts, by far, the most authoritative data from ESI database, and the data

from U.S. News and World Report, the famous institution of ranking universities as well as

the data from SCI and EI database, the frequently-used citation index databases. At last,

ranking of research competitiveness of American universities in Bridge Engineering is

acquired.

Ranking of comprehensive competitiveness of American universities on Bridge Engi-

neering will exert great influence on the feasibility and operation of the ranking of the

discipline competitiveness of the worldwide research institutions.

This study not only provides a DIY method of ranking the research competitiveness of

universities, but also some helpful suggestions on employment and enrollment into insti-

tutions of higher education for university students. Moreover, the greatest significance of

this study is that it pushes the university students’ horizon onto a higher level for their

employment and work by connecting the database mastered by university students with

their practice.

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