The Ranking Game

Abstract

In December 2011, the journal Science published the information that two Saudi- Arabian universities were massively recruiting highly-cited research stars from Cambridge, Harvard & Co. who had made it to the ISI list of most frequently cited researchers. For about $ 70,000 per year they were offered an affiliation to these universities in exchange for the obligation to be present once a year for a short period and to indicate in all their publications their affiliation to the Saudi University. The result was that within two and three years both institutions made it from not listed at all into the group of the top 200 to 300 in the Shanghai JiaoTong Academic Ranking ofWorld Universities (ARWU Ranking).Thus, universities are buying the reputation of researchers in order to increase their own reputation. Not all researchers who were contacted could be bought. However, in March 2012, the largest Australian daily The Australian published a list of 60 frequently cited researchers who had been appointed as ‘distinguished scientists’ at one of the two Saudi-Arabian universities, among them 13 Germans. Altogether, it comprises a number of researchers from top universities in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. All are men, some of whom are already retired.