THE UNIVERSITY ranked fifth among the top research institutions in the country in the 2026 SCImago Institutions Rankings, while emerging as the national leader in the fields of chemistry and pharmacy.
UST secured the fifth spot among 22 Philippine institutions and ranked 5,282nd globally, an improvement from 2025 when UST slipped to sixth locally.
It was named as the top institution locally in chemistry, placing No. 1 out of six institutions in the Philippines (1,629th out of 5,523 globally); and in pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics, ranking first out of four in the country (3,035th out of 4,711 globally).
It also secured second place 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).
UST ranked 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).
It placed No. 4 in arts and humanities (1,877th out of 2,903 globally) and economics, econometrics and finance (2,286th out of 2,716 globally) and No. 5 in psychology (2,534th out of 3,385 globally), public health (2,780th out of 4,076 globally), and sociology and political science (1,681st out of 1,855 globally).
It also ranked in business, management and accounting (6th), education (6th), geography, planning, and development (6th), social sciences (8th), environmental science (9th) in the Philippines.
To qualify for ranking in a subject area, institutions must meet the minimum publication output threshold set by SCImago.
The International Rice Research Institute remained the country’s top-ranked research institution, despite dropping to 2,650th from 2,303rd globally during the 2025 edition.
It was followed by the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, which ranked 3,337th globally, and the Department of Science and Technology at 3,946th.
UP Manila secured the No. 4 spot in the country, placing 4,828th worldwide, while De La Salle University came in No. 6 at 5,768th globally.
A total of 10,827 research institutions joined the 2026 SCImago Institutions Rankings, which included 22 Philippines-based institutions. Institutions were evaluated using three criterias: research performance (50%), innovation outputs (30%), and societal impact (20%).
SCImago Lab is a Spanish consulting firm, part of the SCImago Research Group, that specializes in scientometrics, scientific publication analysis, and web visibility evaluation.
