These rankings derive from the standard version of Thomson Scientific’s Canadian University Indicators, 1981-2004, a database containing publication and citation statistics on 46 Canadian universities in nearly two dozen main science and social-science fields.

In the 1995 survey, two universities achieved particular distinction: the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia. Ten years later, both institutions again predominate, appearing in the rankings far more frequently than any of the other institutions. As was the case last time, however, several other schools managed to shine in various fields, particularly according to the measure of citations per paper.

As Science Watch customarily observes, different citation measurements often produce different results. A ranking according to total citations tends to favor larger institutions that produce a high volume of papers, since, in most cases, the more numerous the papers, the greater the number of citations collected. The University of Toronto, therefore, with its 25,883 papers published in Thomson-indexed journals between 2000 and 2004, wielded a considerable advantage. (The University of British Columbia was next in paper output, with 14,819 reports, followed by McGill University’s 13,996 papers and 11,724 from the University of Alberta.) It is therefore no surprise that Toronto appears in 19 of the 21 rankings in the total-citations table, and in the #1 spot in 15 of those lists (a performance comparable to its achievement in the 1995 survey). The University of British Columbia similarly benefited from its size, also registering in 19 of the total-citations rankings, with #1 showings in four of those fields.

The impact measurement, meanwhile, by calculating an institution’s average citations per paper, removes the advantage conferred by greater size, allowing smaller universities to compete more equitably with larger ones. In the impact rankings for physics, for example, Carleton University outscored both the University of British Columbia and McGill, despite a comparatively low output of 366 Thomson-indexed papers. In mathematics, Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria both scored among the top three in impact, although both produced substantially fewer papers than #2-ranked University of British Columbia. Dalhousie University’s citations-per-paper score registered at #1 in materials science (a field in which the university also placed among the highest in total citations) and at #1 in psychology/psychiatry. The University of Western Ontario earned three #1 appearances. And although Trent University and Simon Fraser University managed only one appearance each, both were #1 placements in the impact rankings—Trent in ecology/environment, Simon Fraser in mathematics.

Other universities achieved a laudable mix of appearances on both lists. The University of Victoria, for example, made the impact ranking in five fields (including a #1 spot in geosciences) and the total-citations ranking in three more. The University of Waterloo scored two #1s by impact (in computer science and plant & animal science) and three additional placements by total citations (one of these, notably, also in computer science). Similarly, the University of Alberta’s five appearances were split between three in the impact rankings and two in the most-cited listings.

Still, despite such strong showings here and there by other schools, the dominance of the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia is hard to ignore. Toronto, in particular, in addition to its expected clout in the total-citations rankings, was among the highest in impact in 14 fields out of 21 fields, including five #1 appearances. In four fields, in fact (engineering, biology & biochemistry, molecular biology & genetics, and education), Toronto was tops in impact and total citations. And the University of British Columbia, well-represented in the total-citations rankings thanks to its high paper output, also scored among the high-impact institutions in seven fields—notably, in space science, where it earned the #1 spot. McGill University, meanwhile, was hardly slack, earning six berths among the impact rankings along with its 11 appearances in the total-citation lists.

As in all its surveys of institutional research, Science Watch sought to balance citation impact against a reasonable output of papers over the five-year period (since, given a smaller number of publications, one or two highly cited papers can artificially inflate an institution’s apparent impact). Therefore, a minimum threshold of published papers was set for each field. Aware that fields vary in their volume of published papers, Science Watch attempted to select an appropriate output threshold for each ranking.

The output thresholds meant that some universities, despite high impact figures, were excluded from the rankings because they published comparatively few papers. In physics, for example, Laurentian University actually topped the impact list with a cites-per-paper mark of 48.22, but did so with only 36 papers—far below the threshold of 300 papers set for this field. The University of Guelph, too, scored high in impact, with 13.03 cites per physics paper, but its five-year output of 166 papers was also below the threshold. Guelph similarly lost out in engineering, with an impact mark of 3.08 but an output roughly 40 papers shy of the 200 set for this field. Carleton University, meanwhile, fell just shy of the mark in materials science, logging a 3.13 cites-per-paper score in impact but narrowly missing the threshold of 75 papers.

The 1995 survey of Canadian university research not only examined the previous five years but presented summary impact figures for the top-performing institutions in the period between 1981 and 1994. Science Watch can now add another decade to that cumulative evaluation: based on papers published and cited between 1981 and 2004, the University of Toronto again trumps all, with an impact average of 20.93 citations per paper. McGill follows closely with 20.36 citations per paper, with the top ten rounded out by McMaster (19.98), the University of British Columbia (18.04), Queens University (16.85), the University of Western Ontario (16.71), the Universite Laval (15.98), the University of Montreal (15.80), Dalhousie University (15.27), and the University of Calgary (15.18).