The Leiden Ranking focuses on publishing output and the impact of scholarly publications; it also analyzes international collaboration between higher education universities on the basis of articles co-authored by researchers from other countries.

In the category concerning scholarly publications, UZH is ranked second in Switzerland and once again numbers among the world's top 100 universities (86th). In Europe, UZH is one of the 16 best higher education institutions. As such, UZH and ETH Zurich (world-wide 62nd and 10th in Europe) maintained their position in output compared to other Swiss higher education institutions.

UZH achieved particularly good results (73) in the area of publications co-authored in the scope of an international collaboration. In this category, the University's results are somewhat better than other Swiss institutions, whose rankings begin at 150. Among European higher education institutions, UZH is ranked 18th.

The impact of publications is measured by the number of articles by a university's staff found among the 10% most frequently cited publications per discipline.  In this category, UZH is 63rd in the world, 13th in Europe, and second in Switzerland.

When the size of a higher education institution is also taken into account – not simply the number but the percentage of publications among the 10% most cited – UZH is ranked 60th in the world, 16th in Europe, and fourth in Switzerland.

In publication impact in the individual disciplines, UZH is ranked as follows: In biomedicine and health sciences, UZH is first in Switzerland, 11th in Europe, and 53rd in the world; in the social sciences and humanities, the University is first in Switzerland, 22nd in Europe, and 72nd in the world; in life and earth sciences, UZH is ranked second in Switzerland, 20th in Europe, and 89th in the world.

The ranking is published annually by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies of Leiden University; it ranks over 900 higher education institutions from some 50 different countries worldwide. The Leiden Ranking focuses solely on bibliometric data, which is based on data from the Web of Science databases.

All scholarly publications and citations from 2012 to 2015 are considered in the ranking. The methodology used allows various interpretations of the data. The interpretations discussed above correspond to the basic principles presented on the ranking's website:
www.leidenranking.com