CS Picks

How are rankings calculated?

CSPicks uses the Geometric Mean of adjusted publication counts across all research areas. This approach rewards institutions for having breadth across multiple areas of Computer Science rather than just dominating in one. The formula is: Score = (Π(adjusted_count + 1))^(1/num_areas).

What is "Adjusted Count"?

Each paper counts as 1.0 total. This value is divided equally among all co-authors. For example, if a paper has 4 authors, each author receives 0.25 credit. This prevents inflation of counts simply by having large author lists.

Where does the data come from?

Publication data is directly sourced from CSRankings. Historical affiliation data (tracking where a professor was in the past) is sourced from OpenAlex. Read Data & Acknowledgment for more info.

What is Historical Mode?

By default, rankings credit all of a professor's papers to their current institution. Historical Mode changes this attribution: it credits papers to the institution where the professor was affiliated at the time of publication. This provides a more accurate view of a department's output for a specific past time window.

What is the difference between CSRankings and CORE A*?

This filter determines which conferences are included in the count:

• CSRankings: Includes a select list of top-tier conferences curated by csrankings.org.
• CORE A*: Only includes conferences that are rated as A* (top 4%) by the CORE Ranking 2023. This excludes certain venues compared to the default set.