A New Model for Ranking Schools of Public Health: The Public Health Academic Ranking

Adeline Dugerdil; Awa Babington-Ashaye; Murielle Bochud; Margaret Chan; Arnaud Chiolero; Andreas Gerber-Grote; Nino Künzli; Gilles Paradis; Milo Alan Puhan; L Suzanne Suggs; Klazine Van der Horst; Gérard Escher; Antoine Flahault

doi:10.3389/ijph.2024.1606684

A New Model for Ranking Schools of Public Health: The Public Health Academic Ranking

Int J Public Health. 2024 Mar 11:69:1606684. doi: 10.3389/ijph.2024.1606684. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Adeline Dugerdil¹, Awa Babington-Ashaye¹, Murielle Bochud², Margaret Chan³, Arnaud Chiolero^{4

5

6}, Andreas Gerber-Grote⁷, Nino Künzli^{8

9

10}, Gilles Paradis⁶, Milo Alan Puhan¹¹, L Suzanne Suggs¹², Klazine Van der Horst¹³, Gérard Escher¹⁴, Antoine Flahault^{1

10}

Affiliations

¹ Institut de Santé Globale, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Genève, Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
² Center for Primary Care and Public Health, University Center of General Medicine and Public Health, Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland.
³ Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
⁴ Population Health Laboratory, Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
⁵ Institute of Primary Healthcare, Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
⁶ Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, School of Population and Global Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
⁷ School of Health Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Zürich, Switzerland.
⁸ Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), Basel, Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland.
⁹ University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
¹⁰ Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+) Directorate, Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
¹¹ Department of Epidemiology, Institute of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
¹² Institute of Public Health and Institute of Communication and Public Policy, Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.
¹³ Department of Health Professions, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
¹⁴ Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator, Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

Abstract

Objectives: As there is no ranking designed for schools of Public Health, the aim of this project was to create one. Methods: To design the Public Health Academic Ranking (PHAR), we used the InCites Benchmarking and Analytics™ software and the Web Of Science™ Core Collection database. We collected bibliometric data on 26 schools of Public Health from each continent, between August and September 2022. We included 11 research indicators/scores, covering four criteria (productivity, quality, accessibility for readers, international collaboration), for the period 2017-2021. For the Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), a network gathering faculties across different universities, a specific methodology was used, with member-specific research queries. Results: The five top schools of the PHAR were: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Public Health Foundation of India, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, SSPH+, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Conclusion: The PHAR allows worldwide bibliometric ordering of schools of Public Health. As this is a pilot project, the results must be taken with caution. This article aims to critically discuss its methodology and future improvements.

Keywords: normalized bibliometric indicators; public health; public health academia; ranking methodology; schools of public health; university rankings.

MeSH terms

Humans
Hygiene
Pilot Projects
Public Health* / education
Schools*
Universities

Grants and funding

This project was funded by the Institute of Global Health, University of Geneva. Access to the software was funded by the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, a SSPH+ Foundation university, which owns a license to the software.