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Marshall Swearingen, MSU News Service

BOZEMAN — Montana State University has once again been recognized in a respected ranking system for its scientific impact and collaboration.

The university earned a spot on the CWTS Leiden Ranking for 2020, which ordered the 1,176 universities in the world with the largest contributions in international scientific journals. MSU is one of only 198 universities in the U.S. to be included on the list.

The ranking is based on universities’ scientific contributions published in scholarly journals, as well as the impact those scientific findings have on the international community. Impact is measured by the number of times the research is cited in subsequent articles published in scholarly journals.

MSU’s overall publication impact rank was 874, while its overall collaborations rank was 804. According to the Leiden Ranking, MSU had 1,256 published articles appear in the citation database during the 20152018 period used in the latest ranking. Nearly a tenth of those articles were among the top 10% of papers cited in their respective fields, signifying their high impact.

"This is a deserving recognition for our world-class faculty and the global impact of their research and publications," said Jason Carter, MSU vice president for research, economic development and graduate education. "It also reflects a more concerted effort across campus to participate in interdisciplinary research and teams."

Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Robert Mokwa said that although the rankings by themselves don't capture the full breadth of research undertaken by MSU's faculty, graduate students, research staff and undergraduates along with community partners, MSU's inclusion remains a point of pride. "It's a testament to the quality of our research and shows that what we do in Bozeman ripples out into the state and the region, as well as the nation and the world."

MSU research expenditures have topped $100 million annually for the past five years, Carter noted, adding that MSU faculty and students publish research findings in numerous major scholarly journals. In June, MSU Regents Professor Neil Cornish joined a large, international group of scientists in publishing a paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters that analyzed gravitational waves caused by the collision of a black hole and a mystery object 800 million light years from Earth.

The Leiden Ranking is based on a leading bibliographic database, the Web of Science. More information, including the full list, is available at the Leiden Ranking website.