Cambridge, Oxford, Princeton and Yale
When comparing Webometrics with other Rankings of Universities most of the discrepancies appear related with striking web policies of the involved institutions. As we mentioned in the FAQ, there are about 500 universities with two or more central webdomains, sometimes maintaining the old domain even after years of the official change. The bad naming practices could explain most of the unexpected (delayed) positions of world class universities but not all of them.Cambridge, Oxford, Princeton and Yale are very prestigious organizations that should be probably amongst the Top 10 universities of the World, at least according to thousands of people from all over the world that probably never spent even a single day in their facilities. The actual performance in the XXIth century of these universities as shown by Webometrics is still very impressive but their positions are far from the Top 10.
Marketing could explain this subjective perception (Of course, how many German elite universities could you cite?), but there should be additional explanations for the delayed ranks. Our current suggestion is that the lack of large institutional repositories at Princeton and Yale explain part of the situation, but we were unable to find additional reasons.
Suggestions and comments are welcomed.
posted by Isidro F. Aguillo @ 1:35 pm
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