THE UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas reclaimed its fifth-place rank among the country’s top research institutions in the 2026 SCImago Institutions Rankings after slipping by a notch last year from its highest standing since joining the assessment.
In the assessment’s latest edition, UST led the Philippines in the subject areas of chemistry and pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics.
It regained its top placement in chemistry (1,629th out of 5,523 institutions globally) after failing to secure a ranking in the 2025 edition. The University also improved from second place last year in pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics (3,035th out of 4,711).
The España-based university placed 5,282nd out of 10,827 worldwide in the annual rankings, which included 22 Philippine institutions this year.
According to SCImago’s website, its inclusion criteria for institutions are a minimum of 100 outputs published in the SCOPUS database in the last year and “citable” works making up at least 75% of their published documents.
Institutions are evaluated using the following indicators: research performance (50%), innovation outputs (30%) and societal impact (20%).
UST also ranked second nationwide in agricultural and biological sciences (1,724th out of 5,246 globally), philosophy (663rd out of 721 globally), and biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (3,111th out of 6,558 globally).
It placed third locally in plant science (1,025th out of 2,729 globally); ecology, evolution, behavior and systematics (1,785th out of 2,976 globally); medicine (3,820th out of 6,116 globally), and infectious diseases (1,741 out of 3,097 globally).
In other disciplines, the University ranked fourth in arts and humanities (1,877th out of 2,903 globally) and in economics, econometrics and finance (2,286th out of 2,716 globally) and fifth in psychology (2,534th out of 3,385 globally); public health, environmental and occupational health (2,780th out of 4,076 globally); and sociology and political science (1,691st out of 1,855 globally).
UST also recorded notable placements in business, education, geography (all sixth), social sciences (eighth), and environmental science (ninth).
The University ranked eighth out of 12 Philippine institutions (6,432nd out of 7,026 worldwide) during its debut in the SCImago rankings in 2020 and later climbed to fifth after a 12th placement in 2023.
Other Philippine institutions in this year’s rankings include the International Rice Research Institute (2650th globally) and University of the Philippines Diliman (3,337th globally), which remained first and second, respectively, in the country.
They are followed by the Department of Science and Technology (3,946th) and the University of the Philippines Manila (4,828th), which retained their placements in third and fourth, respectively, while UST switched places with De La Salle University (5768th).
The rankings were released by SCImago Lab, a Spanish consulting firm run by the SCImago Research Group, which analyzes research institutions worldwide through scientometric indicators and research output analysis. F
