The most effective indicators of university ranking systems in determining the ranking of Iran universities

The purpose of the study is to recognize the common atmosphere of university ranking systems and provide an acceptable picture of their indicators. The indicators and their weights were extracted via university ranking systems' official web sites. The relative weights of different ranking systems were also obtained through a survey of experts. The importance of each extracted indicator was calculated by multiplying the indicator weight by related ranking system weight. The indicators categorized into several groups using some researcher-made keywords. The level of effectiveness of each category of indicators estimated based on its indicators' importance share from the total sum of the importance of all indicators. Research indicators, and among them the "output-citation" group, had the most level of effectiveness. Moreover, in this group, the effectiveness of quality-related indicators was three times more than the effectiveness of quantity related ones. The deliberate, purposeful, and clever use of university ranking systems can have many benefits for higher education stakeholders (policymakers, universities, and students). In contrast, attempts to align academic activities with the most influential indicators are likely to lead to neglecting the core missions of universities (especially education) more than before and exacerbating the trend of caricature and unsustainable growth of inefficient outcomes.