comparative study of research performance and innovation-industry indicators in national and international university ranking systems

Introduction: there are different national and international university ranking systems in the world which rank universities in terms of numerous metrics. previous studies have investigated some educational and research indicators, but research and innovation metrics have not yet been compared. the present study aimed to compare research performance and innovation-industry indicators in the national and international university ranking systems based on measured dimensions, data extraction sources, and find the highest innovational and research-oriented ranking systems than others.methods: this cross-sectional study covered the 2020 edition of each ranking, and the data were collected in january 2021. according to the inclusion criteria, 20 national and international university rankings were selected among 75 ranking systems. this study used a thematic method for data analysis.results: among 20 included university rankings in the study, 17 were international and three national university rankings that all have research performance indicators, and seven of them applied innovation-industry indicators. the highest research-oriented rankings were cwts, ntu, u.s. news, urap, and research excellence framework. the highest innovative-industrial-oriented rankings were u-multilink and scivision. the u-multilink and the scivision were the most research and innovative-industry-oriented rankings, among others.conclusion: the international university rankings are more innovational and research-oriented than national rankings. so, the national university rankings must introduce new national research and innovation-industry indicators for their universities' performance evaluation.