Methodology and Evaluation Frame Work
Unlike conventional ranking approaches that classify researchers or institutions into categories such as Top 1% or Top 1,000 solely on the basis of h-index or total citations, the RSF International Research Index emphasizes field-specific research contributions and context-sensitive evaluation. It considers the h-index, citation impact, and scholarly output relevant to the particular field or subfield under assessment, rather than relying exclusively on overall career metrics.
The Index recognizes that research performance must be interpreted in the context of research experience. Senior researchers may have accumulated higher h-indices and citation counts over longer careers, while early-career researchers may demonstrate stronger recent performance or make substantial contributions within a specific research field. Accordingly, the Index incorporates research-age normalization to improve the comparability of researchers and institutions at different stages of their research trajectories.
Field-specific eligibility is another essential component of the evaluation framework. A researcher’s overall h-index may reflect substantial contributions across several disciplines and cannot, by itself, establish their standing within a particular field or subfield. To address this limitation, the Index applies minimum publication requirements and relevant qualification criteria before considering a researcher eligible for ranking in a designated field. These measures are intended to ensure that rankings reflect a demonstrable body of scholarly work relevant to the field being evaluated.
Furthermore, the RSF International Research Index aims to provide research-standing assessments at multiple geographical levels: international, national, state or prefecture, and city. This multilevel approach enables researchers and institutions to understand their relative research standing across different geographical comparison groups and provides a broader perspective on their scholarly contributions.
The Index draws its bibliometric data and research indicators from Google Scholar and OpenAlex. These sources support the assessment of scholarly publications, citations, and related research-performance measures within the Index’s defined methodological framework.
Thus the RSF – International Research Index seeks to provide a transparent, reproducible, field-sensitive, and context-aware approach to research evaluation, recognizing that meaningful research standing should reflect not only accumulated scholarly impact but also disciplinary relevance, research experience, recent performance, and the scope of the comparison group.
Evaluation of Researchers / Institutions
Researchers and academic institutions interested in being evaluated are invited to submit a request for profile assessment under the RSF International Researcher Ranking or the RSF International Institutional Research Ranking, as applicable. All evaluations will be conducted in accordance with the Index’s established bibliometric criteria and transparent methodological framework.
Researchers are requested to provide their full name (First Name and Last Name) exactly as it appears in their published research papers, along with their latest institutional affiliation, country, state/province/prefecture, and city to facilitate accurate profile identification and research evaluation under the RSF International Researcher Ranking.
Institutions are requested to provide their full official institutional name, including all alternative names, name variations, abbreviations, and commonly used short forms, along with the country, state/province, and city in which the institution is located. This information will help ensure accurate institutional identification and comprehensive research evaluation under the RSF International Institutional Research Ranking.
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