"Freakish Research" Messes Up World Rankings

Which universities are among the best in the world? One of the factors is research. But what if that research is "freakish?"

https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/blog/world-university-rankings-blog-dealing-freak-research-papers

 

That is why I do not pay attention to college rankings. Neither of my schools were involved in freakish research. "Freakish" activity yes :yup:. Research? Not so much. Oh well.

 

This looks like Shanghai people tweaking the formula for their well-known university ranking. "Freakish" papers are legitimate but unusual - namely, papers from large experiments with over 1000 authors. Seems fair, though I wonder how much this affected their ranking, really. Such ranking formulae are routinely tweaked to achieve more meaningful results.

Here is more interesting case - Alexandria University climbing hundreds of places (beating Georgetown) thanks to one unethical individual: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/education/15iht-educLede15.html?_r=0