The Constructed Indicator: A Practitioner’s Perspective on Interpreting QS Citations per Faculty
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This Letter examines how the design of the QS Citations per Faculty (CPF) indicator shapes institutional interpretation and use, from a practitioner perspective. Drawing on experience in the data-checking cycle, it shows how citation rules, faculty denominators, and damping mechanisms can complicate verification and comparison. In particular, smoothing rules and faculty denominator definitions may cause published scores to diverge from underlying bibliometric performance. Improving the clarity of these design choices can support clearer interpretation, fairer comparisons, and more responsible use of high-stakes research metrics.
