UGR the most highly-cited Andalusian university in international press

Fri, 05/25/2018 - 12:46
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25/05/2018
Newspapers bunched together

The University of Granada features in the international press more than any other Andalusian university. Such was the conclusion of a study conducted by Rafael Repiso and María Ángeles Chaparro-Domínguez from the International University of La Rioja, which analysed and quantified international press releases mentioning Spanish universities. The results of the ranking are particularly important, since the extent to which a university features in international media provides a yardstick for gauging their research impact and quality as an academic institution.

The researchers used ProQuest, an extensive digital archive of leading international journals and newspapers, in order to assess how strongly each of the 81 Spanish universities under analysis featured in the international press. This database made it possible to compile 37080 news articles published in 1119 international newspapers in 80 countries and use them as the sample for the study.

Amongst its other findings, the study established a strong correlation between the universities’ presence in the international press and the volume of high-level research carried out under their auspices. In geographical terms, the study also found that Spanish universities feature mainly in media in the United States and Mexico.

 

A university lecturer in a lab being recorded by a cameraman
Prof. Miguel Botella giving a demonstration to a group of researchers during a news report

The results of the study were especially positive for the UGR, as they place it 5th among Spanish universities, after only the Universities of Barcelona, Navarra, Madrid, Salamanca, and the Complutense University of Madrid. The UGR has also overtaken prestigious institutions such as the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Autonomous University of Madrid and the University of Valencia.

This achievement is no doubt partially a result of concerted efforts made by the UGR Communications Management Office, whose main objective, as explained by its Director José Ángel Ibáñez Zapata: “is to ensure that research breakthroughs made at the UGR reach our international audience.”

In this vein, the Office regularly publishes news releases reporting on the cutting-edge research being conducted at the University of Granada. These news articles, many of which are translated into English by an in-house team at the UGR, have recently attracted the attention of prestigious media outlets such as The Guardian, National Geographic, BBC,  The Times, The Independent, The Irish Times and The Times of India, to only mention a few.

Moreover, representatives of leading international newspapers and news agencies such as Reuters have visited multiple UGR faculties and schools to provide their readership with first-hand reports on the pioneering research being undertaken at the UGR.

Link to the study:

Repiso, Rafael; Chaparro-Domínguez, María-Ángeles (2018). Universidades españolas en la prensa extranjera. Análisis de su cobertura periodística. El profesional de la información, v. 27, n. 1, pp. 86-94.

https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2018.ene.08