How to Improve Your NIRF Research Score
Research carries 30% weight and correlates most strongly with rank. It's also the area you most directly control. Here's how to lift each piece.
Everything is per faculty
RP is measured against FRQ — the larger of (a) faculty needed for a 1:15 ratio or (b) your actual faculty. So output is judged per faculty: a smaller, productive department can beat a large one.
The four sub-metrics
| Code | What it rewards | The lever |
|---|---|---|
| PU (35) | Publications per faculty | More indexed papers — but only if they outpace faculty size |
| QP (40) | Citations per faculty + top-25% share | The biggest block — chase elite, high-citation work, not just volume |
| IPR (15) | Patents | A granted patent is worth 2× a published one — push for grants |
| FPPP (10) | Funding + consultancy per faculty | Research grants count 3× consultancy; money received, not promised |
2025 rules to respect
- Retracted papers lose marks — sweep your list against Retraction Watch before submission.
- Self-citations are removed — don't rely on them; raise your top-25% share instead.
The quiet win: affiliations
NIRF pulls research by institution name from Scopus/WoS. Papers where a faculty member wrote a wrong or abbreviated affiliation are never credited. Standardising the affiliation string (and ORCID/Scopus IDs) recovers real marks for free.
See where your research stands in the free tool.
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