What is Ranking?

Usage based ranking is not yet enabled on this site.

Every resource contributed to this site has a ranking, which is a measure of its quality of a scale of 0 to 10. The best resources have a ranking of 10, and the worst, a ranking of 0. As you browse through resources, items with the highest ranking will appear near the top, by default. Similarly, as you search, items with the highest relevance to the search keywords and the highest ranking will appear near the top of the search results. Items with a lower ranking are harder to find.

How is the ranking computed?

The ranking for each resource is a function of its average 5-star review, its popularity, and the number of citations to the resource appearing in the literature. The function for computing the ranking is fairly complex, because it automatically adjusts to compensate for missing information. For example, if a resource has no reviews or very few reviews relative to its peers, then its ranking is based largely on its popularity, which is determined by the number of users accessing the resource and the number of times that it has been accessed during the last 12-month period. Also, if a resource is new, then it is not expected to have much usage. However, as a resource becomes more established and still does not have much usage, its ranking will decline. Resources with the highest ranking will be those accessed many times by lots of different users, with many 5-star (excellent) reviews, and cited in publications.