University of Lorraine (France): commitment to open data and withdrawal from commercial rankings

"The University of Lorraine (France) is preparing to sign the Barcelona Declaration [on the openness of research information] and is committed to the quality of OpenAlex's free and open bibliometric data and the rankings that use it", it declares on 16/07/2024. As a result, it is announcing its withdrawal from commercially-oriented rankings.

"A large proportion of research-related information is managed by commercial companies that profit from it without being accountable to the scientific community. The University of Lorraine, like many other universities, has become highly dependent on this, and it is important to act now to make research information accessible to all through open academic infrastructures."

The university wishes to continue to use rankings "to monitor the evolution of its positioning in different scientific fields", but will only base itself on "international rankings whose methodology is known and reproducible, in particular the Shanghai thematic ranking".

It states that it will:
• "immediately" withdraw from the commercial QS and THE rankings, which "include…