Veritrae

Policies

These policies govern how Veritrae collects data, calculates rankings and handles corrections. Effective 6 November 2026.

• Integrity
• Methodology
• Data and evidence
• Verification
• Research Active seal
• Academic profiles
• Corrections and appeals
• Conflicts of interest
• Funding
• Use of results
• Privacy
• Terms of use

1. Ranking Integrity and Independence Policy

Rankings are produced only by the published formula applied to verified data. No person, including Veritrae administrators, may set or adjust an institution's rank directly.

Payment for any Veritrae service, including memberships, data services, reports, events, advertising or sponsorship, has no effect on any score or rank. Commercial staff have no access to ranking data before publication.

Advertising and sponsored content are labelled as such and are never placed inside ranking tables.

2. Methodology and Weighting Policy

Each institution receives an overall score S = Σ w_ix_i, where w_i is the published weight of criterion i and x_i is the institution's normalised score on that criterion from 0 to 100.

Weights are reviewed at least once a year by an independent expert panel. Any change to weights is announced in the public changelog with its date and reason before or at the time it takes effect.

Institutions with different missions may be shown in type-specific tables in addition to the overall table, because a single measure can be unfair to specialist institutions.

3. Data Collection and Evidence Policy

Veritrae uses data from public sources (such as national statistics agencies, government education registers and open research databases) and from data submitted directly by institutions.

Submitted data must be accompanied by evidence or a named, checkable source. Veritrae may request supporting documents and may decline data that cannot be verified.

If verified data is missing for any criterion, the institution is shown as Insufficient Evidence. Veritrae does not estimate or impute missing values.

Each institution's page lists the sources used for its scores.

4. Listing and Verification Policy

Every institution in Veritrae has one of two statuses.

• Listed: the institution exists and its official website is known. Its details have not yet been checked by Veritrae.
• Verified: Veritrae has confirmed that the institution is legally registered or recognised by the competent national authority, that its official website and contact details are genuine, and that any data it has submitted is supported by evidence.

Institutions can apply for listing or verification free of charge through the Apply page. Veritrae may ask for registration certificates or other documents and may decline an application that cannot be confirmed.

Verification confirms identity, legal status and evidence quality only. It is not accreditation and does not judge the quality of an institution's teaching or qualifications. Verification never changes an institution's score or rank.

Veritrae may remove verified status, withdraw the Research Active seal, or remove any listing at any time, for example if information is found to be false, the institution's legal status changes, or the seal is misused. Removals are recorded in the changelog.

Online, distance-learning and blended institutions follow the same rules and are shown with their teaching format.

Veritrae Research Active Seal

The Veritrae Research Active seal is awarded each year to institutions with at least 20 peer-reviewed journal articles affiliated with the institution, published in the previous or current calendar year. The 2026 seal uses articles published in 2025 and 2026. Small institutions, with fewer than 100 academic staff according to a published staff count, need at least one such article for every five academic staff, with a minimum of five. There are two routes, and both apply the same standard to every institution.

Route 1: open index. Veritrae counts the institution's articles in OpenAlex, the open index of scholarly works. This is checked automatically for every listed institution that has an OpenAlex record.

Route 2: submitted articles. Institutions without an OpenAlex record or ROR ID, or whose articles are missing from it, can submit their number of academic staff and a list of their 2025 and 2026 articles through the Apply page, using DOIs, publisher links or ResearchGate links. Each article is counted only if Veritrae can confirm, from the DOI record or the publisher's page, that it is a peer-reviewed journal article published in 2025 or 2026 with the institution named in an author's affiliation. Preprints, conference abstracts, theses, reports and items found only as uploads on ResearchGate are not counted. The verified list is published on the institution's page so anyone can check it.

The seal cannot be bought or sponsored. Institutions connected to Veritrae's founders or staff are marked as connected, and their evidence is verified by a reviewer who is independent of Veritrae before any seal is shown. It recognises research activity only. It is not accreditation and does not certify the quality of teaching or qualifications.

Institutions holding the seal may display the official image on their own websites, linked to the Veritrae Research Active list. Use of the seal by institutions that do not hold it, or after it has expired, is not permitted. Institutions that believe their count is wrong can request a review under the Corrections and Appeals Policy.

5. Academic Profiles Policy

Researchers and educators at any career stage, with a focus on early-career academics, can apply for a free profile. Each application is reviewed before publication.

We publish only the name, position, field, institution, country, summary and public profile link that the applicant agrees to publish. Email addresses are never published.

Profiles may be checked against institutional email domains, ORCID records or institutional web pages. Academics can ask for their profile to be corrected or removed at any time by email.

6. Corrections and Appeals Policy

An institution may request a correction by email to the address on our Contact page, stating the criterion, the value it believes is correct and the supporting evidence.

Veritrae aims to acknowledge requests within 10 working days and to decide within 30 working days. Accepted corrections are applied, the ranking is recalculated, and the change is recorded in the public changelog.

If a request is declined, the institution receives the reason in writing and may submit one appeal with new evidence, which is reviewed by someone not involved in the original decision.

7. Conflict of Interest Policy

Anyone who reviews data or weights must declare any employment, funding, board role or close personal connection with an institution being assessed, and must not take part in decisions about that institution.

Veritrae does not accept gifts, hospitality or payments tied to the assessment of any institution.

Funding Policy

Veritrae is funded by voluntary donations from individuals. Donations never affect rankings, scores, listings, verification or the Research Active seal, and donors receive no access to data before publication. Veritrae does not accept donations, sponsorship or payment of any kind from institutions it ranks, or from people acting for them. If a donation is found to come from a ranked institution, it is refunded.

8. Use of Veritrae Results

Veritrae is an independent ranking and assessment service. It is not an accrediting body and does not grant accreditation, licensing or legal recognition of any institution or qualification. Accreditation is granted by the official bodies recognised in each country.

Institutions may quote their Veritrae rank and score with the year of publication and a link to this site. They must not describe a Veritrae rank or Verified status as accreditation or as government recognition.

9. Privacy Policy

This website does not require visitors to create an account and does not use advertising trackers.

Applications sent through the Apply page are stored by our hosting provider, Netlify, and read only by Veritrae administrators.

When you email Veritrae or send an application, we use your name, email address and message only to respond to you and to process any data submission or correction. We keep this correspondence for as long as needed to handle the request and maintain the changelog, and we do not sell or share it with third parties except where required by law.

Rankings concern institutions, not individuals. Veritrae does not publish personal data about students or staff.

To ask about or delete information you have sent us, email the address on our Contact page.

10. Terms of Use

Rankings are provided for information. They reflect the data and methodology available at the date shown and may change as data is corrected or updated. Veritrae does not guarantee that any ranking is free of error and is not liable for decisions made on the basis of it.

Links to institutions' websites are provided for convenience. Veritrae is not responsible for the content of external sites.

You may cite and share Veritrae rankings with attribution. Bulk copying of the dataset for commercial use requires written permission.

Veritrae may update these policies. The effective date above shows the latest version, and material changes are noted in the changelog.