imperial college london literature review

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Identifying literature

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Before you start - Identifying literature

All educational research requires a thorough review of appropriate literature, by way of contextualising and justifying the intended study. Before you can begin conducting and writing your literature review, you need to ensure that you have systematically identified and sourced a sufficient range of relevant literature; and in doing so, maintain a sufficiently tight control over the boundaries of your search. You also need to ensure that you develop an efficient system for managing, retrieving and referencing the literature that you do use.

Savin-Baden & Howell Major (2013) provide a number of suggestions for how to proceed through each stage of the initial literature search, as summarised in the table below:


Stage	Options include
Identifying search paths
Limiting search parameters
Developing search strings
Managing the studies	,

Savin-Baden, M. & Howell Major, C. (2013), Chapter 8 – “Literature Review”. In Savin-Baden, M. & Howell Major, C., Qualitative Research. The essential guide to theory and practice. Abingdon: Routledge (pp. 112-129).

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World Cancer Research Fund International: Continuous Update Project-systematic literature review and meta-analysis of observational cohort studies on physical activity, sedentary behavior, adiposity, and weight change and breast cancer risk

Affiliations.

1 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, St. Mary's Campus, Norfolk Place, London, W2 1PG, UK. [email protected].
2 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, St. Mary's Campus, Norfolk Place, London, W2 1PG, UK.
3 School of Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
4 Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
5 Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA.
PMID: 31471762
DOI: 10.1007/s10552-019-01223-w

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to systematically review the complex associations between energy balance-related factors and breast cancer risk, for which previous evidence has suggested different associations in the life course of women and by hormone receptor (HR) status of the tumor.

Methods: Relevant publications on adulthood physical activity, sedentary behavior, body mass index (BMI), waist and hip circumferences, waist-to-hip ratio, and weight change and pre- and postmenopausal breast cancer risk were identified in PubMed up to 30 April 2017. Random-effects meta-analyses were conducted to summarize the relative risks across studies.

Results: One hundred and twenty-six observational cohort studies comprising over 22,900 premenopausal and 103,000 postmenopausal breast cancer cases were meta-analyzed. Higher physical activity was inversely associated with both pre- and postmenopausal breast cancers, whereas increased sitting time was positively associated with postmenopausal breast cancer. Although higher early adult BMI (ages 18-30 years) was inversely associated with pre- and postmenopausal breast cancers, adult weight gain and greater body adiposity increased breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women, and the increased risk was evident for HR+ but not HR- breast cancers, and among never but not current users of postmenopausal hormones. The evidence was less consistent in premenopausal women. There were no associations with adult weight gain, inverse associations with adult BMI (study baseline) and hip circumference, and non-significant associations with waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio that were reverted to positive associations on average in studies accounting for BMI. No significant associations were observed for HR-defined premenopausal breast cancers.

Conclusion: Better understanding on the impact of these factors on pre- and postmenopausal breast cancers and their subtypes along the life course is needed.

Keywords: Adiposity; Breast cancer; Life course; Physical activity; Systematic literature review; Weight change.

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Imperial College London Imperial College London

Literature Review

Key information.

Tutor: Dr Elena Forasacco Course Level: Level 1 Course Credit: 1 credit Mode of Delivery : Online & Face-to-Face sessions available Maximum Course Capacity : 30 ( Online), 15 (Face-to-Face)

There are no more sessions taking place this academic year. The course programme for 2022-23 will be available to book from late September.

A literature review gives the background needed to understanding research projects. In this blended course we will analyse some strategies to enhance your expertise in writing a literature review, useful also for first year doctoral students.

Course Information

This blended course has pre-course activities to complete in your own time and course activities to engage with during the live course: you will receive the credit by participating in all pre-course and course activities.

Pre-course activities (duration about 1h30) will prepare you for the live session: you will have short videos to watch, which will provide you with information, advice and strategies to prepare an effective literature review. You will need to complete short tasks that will help you to practice strategies and advice from videos, as well as to start structuring your literature review. You can benefit from these simple activities even if you are in your first year, they can support you also with the writing of your ESA.

The live course will support you in verifying the learning from the videos, clarifying doubts and working in small groups to receive/give peer-feedback on the tasks you completed. Live sessions are available on different dates as online interaction or as in-person workshop. Please check details when booking.

The deadline for registration is 2 weeks before the live course to allow the completion of pre-course activities
You will need to send your pre-course activity to the tutor by 17h the day before the live course (details in the reminder email)
This course does not cover systematic reviews, grammar, as well as the use of databases and software.
In the course 'Developing and Producing your Research: Publications' you will discuss how to prepare the literature review for your articles.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this blended course you will be able to,

Identify helpful techniques to define the topic of your literature review
Recognise keywords useful to your literature search
Employ effective techniques for searching for and reading your material
Develop your strategy for writing effectively
Assess how your literature review benefits your research

How to Book

Please select a date and book on via Inkpath using your Imperial Single-Sign-On. Bookings will close two weeks before each live session.

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Wiley - PMC COVID-19 Collection

Characteristics of Imperial College London's COVID ‐19 research outputs

Robyn price.

1 Imperial College London, London UK

Yusuf Ozkan

Associated data.

Data collected for this study are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4269922 .

We identified 651 research outputs on the topic of COVID‐19 in the form of preprint, report, journal article, dataset, and software/code published by Imperial College London authors between January to September 2020. We sought to understand the distribution of outputs over time by output type, peer review status, publisher, and open access status. Search of Scopus, the institutional repositories, Github, and other databases identified relevant research outputs, which were then combined with Unpaywall open access data and manually‐verified associations between preprints and journal articles. Reports were the earliest output to emerge [median: 103 days, interquartile range (IQR): 57.5–129], but journal articles were the most commonly occurring output type over the entire period (60.8%, 396/651). Thirty preprints were identified as connected to a journal article within the set (15.8%, 30/189). A total of 52 publishers were identified, of which 4 publishers account for 59.6% of outputs (388/651). The majority of outputs were available open access through gold, hybrid, or green route (66.1%, 430/651). The presence of exclusively non‐peer reviewed material from January to March suggests that demand could not be met by journals in this period, and the sector supported this with enhanced preprint services for authors. Connections between preprints and published articles suggests that some authors chose to use both dissemination methods and that, as some publishers also serve across both models, traditional distinctions of output types might be changing. The bronze open access cohort brings widespread ‘free’ access but does not ensure true open access.

All outputs published by Imperial College London authors on the topic of COVID‐19 between January and March 2020 were preprints, reports, and software/code and all published without peer review.
Across the entire period, January to September 2020, the most common output type from Imperial College London was journal articles, representing 60.8% of all outputs.
Widespread open access (OA) compliance was observed, with 66.1% of all outputs available as gold, green, or hybrid OA. A further 30.5% of outputs were granted free reading access at the time of reporting under bronze OA. 3.4% of all outputs are closed access.
15.8% of the preprints identified resulted in the publication of a journal article in the same time period, with a median of 60 days between publication of the preprint and the journal article.
Fifty‐two publishers were identified across all outputs, of which 4 publishers account for 59.6% of the outputs.

INTRODUCTION

The novel coronavirus (SARS‐CoV‐2), the disease it causes (COVID‐19), and its implications for society have been described as the fastest‐moving production of knowledge in our time (Kupferschmidt, 2020 ) and are estimated to have resulted in tens of thousands of papers produced in a 6‐month period (Teixeira da Silva, Tsigaris, & Erfanmanesh, 2020 ). As a large, research‐intensive science, technology and medicine university with substantial biomedical and public health expertise, Imperial College London researchers began sharing research on the topic in January 2020, when clinical cases of the disease were limited to China. A group formed under the name ‘Imperial College COVID‐19 Response Team’, comprised of staff from Imperial's MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis (MRC GIDA) and the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics (J‐IDEA), led by Professor Neil Ferguson. With a policy to immediately share research before peer review, the group published epidemiological models, co‐publishing through both the institutional open access repository and their institutional website. The earliest dated output from this group was published on 17 January 2020, 13 days before the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (World Health Organization, 2020b ). The forecasts of one report (Ferguson et al ., 2020 ) were widely cited as having changed multiple national government responses to the pandemic (Bruce‐Lockhart, Burn‐Murdoch, & Barker, 2020 ) (Landler & Castle, 2020 ) (Boseley, 2020 ). This output received phenomenal media and online attention ( https://www.altmetric.com/details/77704842 ). Many other researchers and groups at Imperial have produced COVID‐19 research in a variety of formats and open access models. We sought to understand the quantity and characteristics of all of Imperial's contributions to COVID‐19 research in order to provide data for the institution to understand its outputs, as well as to provide an institutional cohort perspective to complement the global output level of analysis in other studies on COVID research (Di Girolamo & Meursinge Reynders, 2020 ; Fraser et al ., 2020 ; Helliwell et al ., 2020 ; Shuja, Alanazi, Alasmary, & Alashaikh, 2020 ; Teixeira da Silva et al ., 2020 ). The institution's commitment to ‘ consider the value and impact of all research outputs (including datasets and software) in addition to research publications ’ (SF Dora, 2012 ) as a signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment instructed us to consider the widest possible interpretation of research outputs that were still feasible to collect using bibliographic and data search methods; resulting in journal articles, preprints, reports, datasets, and software/code forming the dataset.

We sought to understand the volume and characteristics of the research from Imperial College London on the novel coronavirus in a publication period of 1st January to 30th September 2020. The following research aims were identified:

Identify the volume of publications and the distribution over the time period by different research output types.
Determine what proportion of preprints went on to be published as journal articles and the average time for this.
Identify open access trends.
Demonstrate the distribution of outputs between publishers.

This was a cross‐sectional study of Imperial College London‐authored research outputs related to COVID‐19. The data were extracted in October 2020.

Search strategy

The search strategy is described in Supplementary data file 1 ‘Search Strategy’. For all steps, the search terms used are ‘2019‐nCoV’, ‘COVID‐19’, ‘SARS‐CoV‐2’, or ‘coronavirus’.

Journal articles collected by search performed on Scopus for terms in Title, Abstract or Keywords, and authorship affiliations to ‘Imperial College London’.
Reports collected by search performed on Imperial College London's open access publication repository (Spiral) for terms in Title or Keywords and Type as ‘Report’.
Datasets collected by search performed on Imperial Research Data Repository for terms in Title and filtered to ‘datasets’. The same search was performed on Zenodo, Google Dataset Search, Open AIRE, and Datacite Search, with these results manually verified to have Imperial authors.
Software/code collected by search performed on Imperial College London Github repository, Imperial College London Software Repository, and MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis Github repository for terms in Title or About field.
Preprints collected by search performed on Imperial College London Current Research Information System (CRIS) for terms in Title, Abstract, or Keywords. Standard Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) prefixes for preprint servers were identified and then used to filter preprint materials in the set. 1
Preprints were also collected through a search on Dimensions for terms in Title and Abstract; ‘Preprint’ in Publication Type and ‘Imperial College London’ in Research Organization. These results were merged with the CRIS preprint results described in Step 5 and deduplicated.
All results (excluding arXiv items and software/code without DOIs) were run through the Unpaywall Simple Query Tool to retrieve open access status.
Manual update of open access status for arXiv items and software/code.
Results were manually screened by exact or similar title and authorship to identify likely preprint/journal article output relationship.

Software definitions

For the equivalent of publication date, the earliest found date in the repository referring to the release or any documented action on the output was taken as a proxy publication date. Anonymous authorship practices in software communities introduce uncertainty around author or affiliated institution. Outputs identified from non‐institutionally managed repositories were manually verified to have Imperial authors before inclusion. Multiple versions of the same software/code published in the same repository file were considered as one entity, dated to their earliest found version.

Preprint definitions

Multiple versions of the same preprint that shared a common DOI were counted as a single output, but versions with different DOIs or hosted on different servers or repositories were counted as individual outputs. We could not find a systematic way to identify preprints that also existed as journal articles, so we had to identify these connections manually by similarity of title and author composition. We chose to move the contents of the Unpaywall ‘publisher’ field into the ‘journal name’ field for preprints and inputted manually into the ‘publisher’ field the owner of the server, for example, ‘journal name’ becomes ‘medrXiv’ and ‘publisher’ becomes ‘Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory’.

Peer reviewed and no peer reviewed status

Peer review status was interpreted as de facto ‘not peer‐reviewed’ for preprints, reports, datasets, and software/code and de facto ‘peer reviewed’ for journal published articles. Exception: Wellcome Open Research and F1000 outputs were considered individually on the basis of their declared peer review status at time of reporting.

Open access definitions

Open access determination was provided by Unpaywall: closed, bronze, green, hybrid, and gold. Closed access is defined as no access to the relevant output without subscription or log in, including membership log ins for a free item. Bronze access is defined as temporary free access via publishers' websites (to support the global efforts to fight against the pandemic, many publishers provide temporary free access to COVID‐19‐related research outputs). Green open access is defined as items made available by self‐archiving via institutional or subject repositories or preprint servers (excluding preprints published under a CC BY licence). Hybrid open access is defined as an article distributed under CC BY licence in a subscription journal. Gold open access is defined as CC BY (or equivalent distribution for a non‐journal output type) and for an article, in a journal where all content is distributed fully open access (Priem, 2020 ). We chose to exclude bronze access from the broader open access groups of gold, green, and hybrid with respect to the distinction between ‘free’ access and ‘open’ access that encompasses rights to reuse, revise, redistribute, remix, and retain (Costello, 2019 ).

A total of 651 outputs were identified from the search. These included journal articles, preprints, software/code, reports, and datasets. See Table 1 for full details.

Categorization of outputs by type, publisher, and open access status.

		Outputs ( = 651)
Type	Journal article	396
	Preprint	189
	Software/Code	29
	Report	29
	Dataset
Publisher	Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory (medRxiv and bioRxiv)	136
	Elsevier (inc. SSRN)	121
	Wiley (inc Authorea)	75
	Springer	56
	BMJ	31
	Imperial College London	31
	Github	28
	SAGE	18
	Cornell University (arXiv)	15
	Oxford University Press	14
	Research Square	13
	Others	113
Open access status	Gold	282
	Green	78
	Hybrid	70
	Bronze	199
	Closed	22

Volume of publication by month

Month‐on‐month change in the volume of publication was observed across the period, with some instances of no change: January to February (20% growth, 5 vs. 6), February to March (266.7% growth, 6 vs. 22), March to April (136.3% growth, 22 vs. 52), April to May (155% growth, 52 vs. 130), May to June (no change, 130 vs. 130), June to July (−8.4% decline, 130 vs. 119), July to August (no change, 119 vs. 119), and August to September (−42.8% decline, 119 vs. 68) (Fig. 1 ).

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Absolute monthly outputs, all output types.

Days to publication by output type

Assuming the first instance of a publication to be Day 1 (report, 17 January 2020) and the final instance of a publication to be Day 257 (preprint, 30 September 2020), we observed the following distribution of publication dates by output type: software/code (median: 142 days, IQR: 102.5–198.5 days), reports (median: 103 days, IQR: 57.5–129 days), preprints (median: 138 days, IQR: 102–166 days), articles (median: 171.5 days, IQR 136–203.75 days), and datasets (median: 184.5 days, IQR: 95.25–188 days) (Fig. 2 ).

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Distribution of publication dates by output type. Day 1 = 17 January 2020 (first publication of an output).

Peer reviewed and non‐peer reviewed outputs

Across the entire time period, identification of output types as peer reviewed (PR) and non‐peer reviewed (NPR) revealed January to March outputs were exclusively NPR, but across the entire time period, the majority of the outputs were PR (60.8%, 396/651).

January (NPR 100%, 5/5),
February (NPR 100%, 6/6),
March (NPR 100%, 22/22),
April (NPR 78.8%, 41/52 vs. PR 21.1%, 11/52),
May (NPR 45%, 59/130 vs. PR 55%, 71/130),
June (NPR 42.3%, 55/130 vs. PR 57.6%, 75/130),
July (NPR 23.5%, 28/119 vs. PR 76.4%, 91/119),
August (NPR 22.6%, 27/119 vs. PR 77.3%, 92/119),

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Object name is LEAP-34-358-g002.jpg

Monthly distribution of peer reviewed versus non‐peer reviewed publications.

Thirty preprints were identified as later resulting in a journal article publication (15.8%, 30/189). The median time between the preprint publication and the journal article publication was 60 days (IQR: 25–82.25 days) (Fig. 4 ).

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Object name is LEAP-34-358-g005.jpg

Distribution of days between preprint and journal article publication.

Diversity of publishers

A total of 52 publishers were identified across the outputs. The top 10 publishers by volume of outputs are:

Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory (medRxiv and bioRxiv) (20.8%, 136/651);
Elsevier (18.5%, 121/651);
Wiley (11.5%, 75/651);
Springer Nature (8.6%, 56/651);
Imperial College London (institutional repositories) (4.7%, 31/651);
BMJ (4.7%, 31/651);
Github (4.3%, 28/651);
SAGE (2.7%, 18/651),
Cornell University (arXiv) (2.3%, 15/651) and
Oxford University Press (2.1%, 14/651).

Of these 52 publishers, 4 account for 59.6% of the outputs (Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory 21%, Elsevier 19%, Wiley 12%, Springer Nature 9%) (Fig. 5 ).

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Object name is LEAP-34-358-g008.jpg

Top 10 publishers by volume of outputs, with output types identified.

Open access status

We identified 66.1% (430/651) of all outputs as open access (gold, hybrid, or green route). The remaining outputs are closed access including bronze (closed access 3.4%, 22/651 and bronze 30.5%, 199/651). In the months January, February, and March, 100% of outputs were published open access, with the introduction of closed‐access outputs from April onwards. Across the entire period, open access items consistently surpass closed‐access publications in monthly output (Fig. 6 ).

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Object name is LEAP-34-358-g007.jpg

Monthly publication of outputs by open access or closed‐access status.

The following is a breakdown of open access categories by output types:

hybrid (journal articles 100%, 70/70);
green (datasets 2.2%, 2/90 vs. journal article 21.1%, 19/90 vs. preprint 65.6%, 59/90 vs. software/code 11.1%, 10/90);
gold (datasets 2.2%, 6/270 vs. journal articles 35.2%, 95/270 vs. preprints 45.2%, 122/270 vs. reports 10.7%, 29/270 vs. software/code 6.7%, 18/270);
closed (journal articles 59.1%, 13/22 vs. preprints 36.4%, 8/22 vs. software/code 4.5%, 1/22);

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Object name is LEAP-34-358-g006.jpg

Distribution of OA status by output type.

Creative Commons licences were observed across journal articles (38%, 152/396), preprints (65%, 122/189), software/code (17%, 5/29), reports (100%, 29/29), and datasets (75%, 6/8). Across all output types, the most popular variation of the Creative Commons licence used was CC BY, the least restrictive Creative Commons licence and used by 151 outputs overall (23%, 151/651). Other open access licences used are broadly permissive: Wiley OpenOnline, Open Government Licence, MIT License, and GNU General Public License (Fig. 8 ). However, for 22.8% (98/430) of the open access outputs (green, gold, and hybrid routes), an open access licence was not identified. This suggests that either a licence existed but, through a data or file error, it could not be found by our searches and Unpaywall, or that an open access licence does not exist for the item.

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Object name is LEAP-34-358-g003.jpg

Open access licence breakdown by output type. Note that due to licensing data irregularities, licence does not correspond directly to OA status. Bronze and closed‐access outputs excluded.

Although the majority of outputs over the entire time period were journal articles, the exclusive presence of NPR outputs reports and preprints between January and March, which were not surpassed by PR content until May, suggests that authors needed a faster form of dissemination than journals could offer in the early months of coronavirus pandemic (Kupferschmidt, 2020 ), similar to those working in other global health emergencies (Zhang, Zhao, Sun, Huang, & Glänzel, 2020 ). As authors chose to disseminate research in the preprint form, the sector responded. PubMed Central adapted to include coronavirus preprints ( www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/about/nihpreprints/ ), and other existing preprint servers have adapted to prioritize this research or have been established solely for the crisis (Lu Wang et al ., 2020 ). Journal publishers responded to the crisis; a decrease of days between submission and publication by some medical journals publishing on the topic has been observed (Horbach, 2020 ), as well as announcements of reduction of peer review times by publishers (Redhead, 2020 ). However, whether the likely contradictory demands of both reducing peer review and editorial time whilst retaining quality (Kwon, 2020 ) are sustainable or achievable are yet to be evaluated long term. There is some indication that this pressure is changing journal publisher attitudes to preprints, seen by explicit encouragement of preprints on the topic at The New England Journal of Medicine (Rubin, Baden, Morrissey, & Campion, 2020 ), reference to the pandemic as a reason for The Lancet's decision to make their ‘Preprints with the Lancet’ SSRN platform permanent in September 2020 (Kleinert & Horton, 2020 ), and the introduction of a default preprint policy for COVID‐19 submissions at eLife (Eisen, Akhmanova, Behrens, & Weigel, 2020 ). Publication platforms such as Wellcome Open Research and F1000 further disrupt traditional distinctions in the journal and peer review process.

As preprints shift closer to the centre field of established scholarly communications, either the infrastructure and data standards supporting them needs to develop, or bibliographic tools need to adapt to accommodate. The complicated method of preprint data collection in this study (searching through the institution's CRIS records, a search function only available to administrators at the institution, and then supplementing it with a second search on Dimensions) was used because, although some databases index preprints (Europe PMC, Dimensions), contributor affiliation data associated with preprints is not of sufficient quality or sufficiently widespread to enable comprehensive search with verified affiliation. This is not a fault of the databases but perhaps a dependency on structured and parsable metadata from preprint servers that is not always available. Also, a lack of accessible methods through which to search for connected preprints and published journal articles, also perhaps due to missing associated metadata identifiers; prevents large‐scale or automated data collection and requires associations to be identified manually as in this study. This constraint could be possibly prohibiting the rich insight that could come from easily accessible mapping of preprint and article networks.

The presence of 52 publishers found is an indication that authors are served with competitive options from which to choose their own preferred outlet for dissemination and are safeguarded against ‘lock‐in’ from any one provider. Whilst the majority of publishers predominantly serve one output type, e.g. journal publishers to journal articles, some are represented across more than one type – for example, the institutional repository publishing as ‘Imperial College London’ is represented amongst datasets (1), preprints (1), and reports (29). This could be a positive indicator that artificial distinctions in the research life cycle are being replaced with more holistic solutions that offer dissemination for all outputs of research. However, others have raised concern that the representation of commercial publishers across output types poses a threat to equity and value in the research production cycle (Posada & Chen, 2018 ). The acquisition of preprint servers by commercial publishers, Elsevier and SSRN (2016) and Wiley and Authorea Inc. (2018), contributed to their combined preprint and journal article shares in our set (Elsevier 19% and Wiley 12%).

That 100% of papers were published open access in the first 3 months of the pandemic suggests an author preference for this model in this period. However, considering that all of these outputs were not peer reviewed (NPR) types (preprints, reports, and software/code), it is difficult to robustly argue that these outputs were open access as a conscious choice and not a consequence of the NPR output type. There are examples in the full time period of NPR outputs published closed access (the SSRN preprints considered closed due to their membership log in wall and one item of software set to internal view (private) in the Imperial Github repository) across the entire time period, but their presence is small (1.4%, 9/651). Publisher intervention to convert content to bronze open access is positive but has limitations; the access is not ensured in perpetuity and could be revoked in the future (Elsevier, 2020 ), and conditions of rights are not consistently clarified. Areas of particular need in this crisis that free access alone does not ensure are machine access for text and data‐mining purposes, which is needed to apply artificial intelligence and machine‐learning techniques to COVID‐19 research (Shuja et al ., 2020 ) and translation rights to disseminate in a global public health event.

This study of a single institution's outputs was undertaken with an awareness that Imperial is not the largest contributor by publication volume to COVID‐19 research (Hook & Porter, 2020 ) and obviously not the only institution to have produced impactful results. Despite suggestions of the pressures of adapting research practices to accommodate lab closures and the demand for rapid results leading to smaller teams and fewer international collaborative partners in the early months of the pandemic (Fry, Cai, Zhang, & Wagner, 2020 ), we understand that coronavirus research demands collaboration at every level (Apuzzo & Kirkpatrick, 2020 ) and that any institutional‐level analysis should be interpretated in relation to organisation size, mission and resouces.

LIMITATIONS

We recognize the limitations of comparing output types without adjusting for their characteristics or context. For example, comparison of publication times of journal articles and preprints is not a truly fair comparison given the vastly different time enterprises required of each type; neither is to compare the open access models of output types that are mandated for open access (e.g. articles) and the other output types which are not (preprints, datasets, reports, software/code).

The green open access share of the data may underrepresent the true number of articles self‐archived, an action that is mandated by the institution's open access policy. This is because outputs would only be classified green when there is no publisher‐hosted option available (Piwowar et al ., 2018 ), so it is possible that some of the bronze open access items also exist as repository‐archived green open access, but the Unpaywall hierarchy gives authority to the bronze publisher‐hosted version in classification.

Authors were served with options to publish rapidly in non‐peer review form and under open access models throughout the entire period, and from January to March, these options were exclusively used. Across the entire period, however, the most commonly observed output was journal articles. The association of some preprints with journal articles suggests that the status of peer review versus non‐peer review is, for some outputs, not binary. This increasing connectedness between the two can also be seen by the presence of publishers serving across both types. That the majority of outputs were published under some form of open access is positive; however, whether the bronze OA cohort is truly compliant with the long‐term needs of this global challenge (World Health Organization, 2020a ) (Wellcome, 2020 ) is not clear. The inclusion of reports, preprints, datasets and software/code as output types permits a richer and more accurate description of the institution's activities and talents than considering journal articles alone. There is a need for bibliographic methods to adapt to better identify and classify these valuable non‐journal output types.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Both authors declare that they are employees of Imperial College London, UK.

Supporting information

File S1. Supplementary Information.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors received advice from Wayne Peters and Diego Alonso Alvarez, both of Imperial College London, on including datasets and software/code in analysis.

Publisher <10	Outputs ( = 651)
Informa UK Limited	9
Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)	8
Zenodo	7
Wellcome Trust	7
JMIR Publications Inc.	6
MDPI AG	6
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)	5
American Thoracic Society	5
European Respiratory Society (ERS)	5
Public Library of Science (PLoS)	4
American Medical Association (AMA)	4
S. Karger AG	4
Frontiers Media SA	4
Mary Ann Liebert Inc	3
Mark Allen Group	2
EMBO	2
Massachusetts Medical Society	2
American Society of Nephrology (ASN)	2
American Chemical Society (ACS)	2
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)	2
European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC)	2
American College of Physicians	2
Royal College of General Practitioners	2
Joule Inc.	1
Medknow	1
World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (WHO/EMRO)	1
Microbiology Society	1
Asociatia Pentru Cresterea Vizibilitatii Cercetarii Stiintifice (ACVCS)	1
Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)	1
Dryad	1
Royal College of Physicians	1
FapUNIFESP (SciELO)	1
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)	1
American Physiological Society	1
Sociedade Brasileira de Cardiologia	1
E.U. European Publishing	1
The Royal Society	1
Cambridge University Press (CUP)	1
Ubiquity Press, Ltd.	1
International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease	1
Walter de Gruyter GmbH	1

b. The following prefixes were identified: medRxiv and bioRxiv: 10.1101; SSRN: 10.2139; Wellcome Open Research: 10.12688; Research Square: 10.21203; and Authorea: 10.22541. arXiv does not assign DOIs.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

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Imperial College London Reviews

266 reviews by students, how do you rate imperial college london, 169 people have already..

credit: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/visit/campuses/

Ratings and Reviews

4.33 / 5 from 266 verified student reviews

I have enjoyed every single year of my studies at Imperial College, in which I have found what I am truly passionate about.

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144-168 UCAS Points

Average range for Imperial College London entry requirements. Varies depending on the course.

This is the latest available data, published by UCAS - 9th January 2023. All data is based on UCAS standard definitions.

Imperial College London Reputation

Imperial College London has its main campus in Kensington, Central London, with more campuses and buildings across London. 21,470 students are enrolled at Imperial College London:

- 10,150 of these students come from the UK - 2,720 come from other EU countries - And 8,600 are students from non-EU countries.

(Source: HESA 2021/22)

The graduate outcomes for Imperial College London show that six months after leaving university, 92% of graduates are in work or further study. The typical graduate salary six months after leaving Imperial College London is £30 - £33K a year.

(Source: HESA Graduate Outcomes Data Survey 2023 for 2020/21 graduates)

Updated: 30th June 2023

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Perfect experience! The manager Ozan are always able to solve our problems on time, he is super kind.

Everything is good. The stay experience was good. The receptionist was very friendly.

Great university and amazing experience

Imperial Business School was my dream university, and I am fortunate to be part of it.

Great place, good friends. Fay is very helpful.

The professors are wonderful. I've learned at lot from them.

Great university - definetly a carrer boost

Great campus located in the heart of London, with many study spaces and clubs.

I have enjoyed my time at Imperial! Made lots of friends and learnt a lot.

It has been very exciting study at the University with world class faculties.

Good university, excellent location in South Kensington

old facility and broken everywhere.

Weird people with ok student supports. Not much clubs and societies, not that I will necessarily be interested to join with others in this university lol

Slightly above what I expected but nothing special

A great university and I am glad to join it.

Spent a year at this studio and was thoroughly impressed. The space is lovely, and Ozen, the manager, provided outstanding service. Truly appreciative of the comfort and hospitality.

Great experience overall ! Wonderful college campus

Imperial is an amazing university

Amazing experience. Best campus in london.

Amazing college, very good campus.

Very good campus facilities and canteens. Could improve social events

One of the top universities on the world, good social connection, and amazing research.

Good experience,cleaning and quiet. Feel comfortable

Great university with lots of fun societies

It’s challenging and academically rigorous yes, but there isn’t much room for a work-life balance and not much support from senior staff. Its very intense and I found myself suffering from worse bouts of depression and anxiety while studying there.

High end facility, poor spaces and toilets

I love my uni! My favourite thing about South Kensington campus is the library!

The lectures are quite useful and the tasks are a bit difficult and challenging, but studying there is really good

The manager here is very nice, rooms are clean and equipments work well.

Super nice campus and good people

Teaching is fast paced and content heavy. Exams are very challenging and coursework deadlines are tight. It is not easy to perform well, but it makes the experience more worthwhile.

Amazing. Top university with amazing facilities and london is a great place to live

A nice place to study and the diversity of students make it even better

good uni but got a lot of work to do

Imperial bruh. What more can you ask for.

Generally a good place to acquire knowledge and social experiences. Studying here can sometimes be challenging, but it's always good to break yourself from your comfort zone.

excellent uni, great people and love their Woodward Halls of Residence

An excellent university with world-leading resources

Great designed programme, knowledgeable professors, creative peers and beautiful campus.

The campus is so small that there are no outdoor sports fields at all (only indoor stadiums). The only lawn on campus is always crowded with people, which makes me feel crowded

Very practical! And only 2 year course!

Imperial College London is a great university! Would definitely recommend courses in the Centre for Environmental Policy.

Average college for students not very recommended

imperial College London is locaded in South Kensington. Good place but WiFi is slow.

Imperial is my dream school and I am very glad to have the chance to study here. it has comfortable and great environment for students to study and relax.

The best university in the UK and I really like my classmates and teachers there.

Amazing food on campus. Very welcoming community with friendly lecturers. All kinds of clubs and societies available to make friends.

It is a very nice and great university.

Great University so far, a bit strict for marks

As a place of research, not many places in the world are as good as imperial, the campus, although small, has great facilities and some genuinely brilliant staff members. However, as a place of education, Imperial lacks in some of the most important areas; student satisfaction is a major problem, they can’t seem to do anything right when it comes to the likes of feedback, exam timetabling, workload balance, etc. (This is only regarding the Physics department, although I’ve heard similar stories from students from other courses, I can only speak for my own) I can say the support they give for mental health is actually not bad, they generally try to be accommodating of a lot of problems you may experience. The issue is the number of people experiencing mental health problems as a result of their course. There are people who enjoy their time at imperial, a lot of them, but I cannot say I have.

Awesome!!! The perfect place for any STEM nerds, you'll find your niche I promise. Facilities are top notch, and there's so many clubs to choose from. I fricking love my uni <3 <3 <3

I’m very proud to be a part of the Imperial body. Although I have not been able to experience the student life in its full effect I believe the school has great facilities and teachers

I am proud to be part of a universally-recognised University. The course is of outstanding quality - would highly recommend

Every thing nice! Nice staff! Nice room.

good college, hard study experience

The College is really nice and it is what I dreamed about! Really great environment and nice staff! Would be an honor to be the student of IC!

Because of the coronavirus, I did not really participate in some activities in the school, but I have been to the library and I think the facilities of the library are great.

It is such a big pity for Online courses, but IC is that IC. Good College!

Really good atmosphere and friendly lecturers

gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood

the wifi is fast but not stable.

I enjoy the supportive academic environment.

Amazing university, always a load of fun getting to make music in London!

Strong academic background and very good resources.

Very good university with great staff

Good university with a wide range of masterclasses and support to choose from

Its been good but i feel like it would of been better if there was no covid

Very hard to get involved due to covid.

Imperial College London is a great and famous university and it is really great.

.It is a good college, I learn a lot from there, And every teacher(posdoc, lecturer, doctor or professor) there has a good scientific experience and they are very friendly. I learned a lot from here and experience with respect.

It's great!All the people are friendly

I can't really give a comprehensive review since I've only been to uni for several times due to COVID.

Icl is always my dream school. The lectures are really attractive and interesting. Staff here are all friendly and helpful. ICl located in central London,.A really decent uni.

It is a lovely place to live and share your ideas, knowledge with other like minded students. It is a well furnished accommodation with superb location in the walking distance of river Thames and offers high quality living standards.

Very well prepared when it comes to covid regulations, great tutors and members of staff

Everything is managed very will, safe and clean.

Great Unicersity and nice campus which gave me unbelievable experience here in London

I'm a student in Business school. It is a nice school and has the comfortable space for studying.

ICL is the best university for all of the students

Career services are great! Really would have enjoyed more clubs to have fun and bond especially in this lockdown period

because the covid 19, I didnt spend enough time in our campus so I cant provide a precise review.

Imperial College London is one of the best University in the UK. They provide great facilities and experience even under the pandemic.

because of covid-19, i don't have much time at school except the school library. Library is good, quite place for study.

An incredible university for filmmakers!

the life in imperial is good, with wonderful academic resource

Located in an excellent place and has world-class faculty and facilities.

Good university. People are friendly and always glad to help.

really like it. the professor is also nice and passionate.

Really enjoyed my time at imperial. My course has been great and I am really pleased with the support offered. I like the campus but it could use with some updating now, especially the library.

Large campus with many areas to study. University has a wide range of societies to accommodate all type of interests.

It's far beyond my wildest expectations. Imperial College helps one balance an intense academic life with other aspects of life needed to keep going forward.

The empire’s curriculum during the epidemic is really the best.

Very thoughtful staff who are very helpful and go beyond to residents feel welcome. Residents are very friendly and as a plus television in room. Good value for money too and in a great location too.

Not great. Good name, good research, bad teaching.

There was a lack of transparency in the MSc course. I am thankful we received our graded coursework to review, but we weren't allowed to see our marked exams, which I take issue with. (Part of learning is recognizing any gaps in knowledge. Transparency also protects.) On one coursework, I was docked points for missing material. In reviewing, I found an entire section of my work unchecked. When I brought this (& included material) to my instructor's attention, he conceded & returned points that made a rather significant difference to my grade. All this to say, it would have been helpful to have seen our marked exams and to have been able to check for any mistakes in grading. To be fair, there are some really good instructors in the CivEng department. To make the MSc a stronger educational programme, I advocate for more transparency. Lastly FWIW, I left with the impression that the programme was operating more like a business (lots of int'l funding).

It is a nice and peaceful place and I enjoyed living here

You're literally paying for the 'Imperial' brand. Teaching and organisation are poor. Student support is abysmal. If you're a disabled student, don't expect Imperial to really care. They're just strict and stick to rules for the sake of them and palm you off to other people continuously if you've got any issues. Every process is very official, lengthy and drawn out - they don't even sort anything. My department also ignored the disability service's recommended adjustments, based on my disability. Putting someone with ADHD in a room with other students and an invigilator who was typing on his laptop right in front of me when it was recommended that I had a separate room because I have attention problems?! Common sense is obviously lacking. Imperial really do not care, they just care about the extra money coming in and lecturers getting those teaching hours ticked off. But hey, at least I can put Imperial on my CV!

Shortened my degree here because I absolutely hated it here. Overpriced everything, poor campus facilities always overcrowded, stressful city life, always over-worked with unachievable amounts of work, unable to provide for student’s needs when requested, unprofessional and bad university management overall. Will stress you out even after graduating: My degree certificate didn’t arrive on time, turned out it wasn’t even sent. Had to phone up 3 different telephone numbers and email 3 email addresses until I got a response. They are treating people’s important documents like toilet paper. Don’t go here if you value your mental health. The name value and career prospects are not worth it when you consider you will end up graduating a zombie. No comment on the clubs, have to sacrifice club time for work time A LOT. Also, what student union? Hardly engaging to the majority of students. The only good thing they have are cheap pints at the 568 bar.

Student union really depends on what course but it’s good overall

Good academics, very poor student satisfaction, people will be depressed

People get stressed out but actually it's such an amazing time if you let yourself have it.

Excellent courses, but terrible student support

Imperial is a great uni but the student union both as a building in Beit and an organisation could do with a lot more investment.

Good academics. Bad if you want a life

Great university with excellent resources at hand

Total opposite to what I thought would happen. Physics degree has been horrendously run and has put me off the subject massively, but have met a great crowd of people and thoroughly enjoyed the university experience nonetheless

Please avoid. The humanities are painfully lacking here. Terrible place unless you are a narrow minded scientist.

Its amazing especially the people you meet.

Both challenging and highly rewarding. Have met likeminded people, and developed greatly as a person. Have been provided with many incredible opportunities, and learnt from excellent staff and students. Fantastic facilities too. Sometimes lacking in funding for services such as counselling

A more work-focused university, however with a good social life once you find the right people!

Lovely place to study with brilliant people and a very proactive environment. The campus is taken good care. Imperial College London really cares about students and is always looking for ease students' life. I am very happy with this College.

I've been at Imperial for three years now and I'm in for a fourth. Imperial seems tough at the start but this is because we do not realise how productive we can be if we set our mind to it. I used to not like it but as the years have gone by and I compare with people from other unis I understand how my Imperial training has made me into a very competent and professional person which gives me great safety and ambition for the future. As a bonus, if you take it seriously and stay on top you can have quite a good social life even if many of your peers complain that they do not.

Pretty stressful environment, regardless of course. I did Biology and enjoyed it overall but the lack of support from the university (administrative or mental health-wise) was frustrating. The administrators for the different departments all seem equally incompetent in giving out information on time, if at all, and I've often reminded our coordinator to release certain information just hours before it's needed because they've forgotten? The clubs and societies are fantastic here, but the general atmosphere is oppressive and everyone seems perpetually stressed here. Rumours about low student satisfaction are true :)

I really like Imperial in almost every way, except I feel like its really hard to both keep up with work and go out. For that reason only I wish I had gone somewhere more fun.

Campus and some buildings are shockingly ugly for a supposedly world-class institution. Central Library gets quite busy and very hot. Our department lacked in student common room space and had no student cafe. The vending machines are always bloody broken so you can't get coffee when forced to work at 4am!! There is a wide array of clubs and societies. Only problem is that the sports ground is almost an hour coach away. Union has subsidised alcohol and those famous curly fries :) Careers service seems excellent, but I have never used it. They are open every day for advice and CV checkups. Wifi perfectly sufficient.

Studied computing. The curriculum overall is great and will turn you into a great engineer capable of commanding a salary well above the national average for graduates... but that comes at a cost of your sanity; the department is astonishingly incompetent at managing a degree programme. I do not have space to fully detail why here. Lecturers cannot come close to accurately estimating how long a particular assignment takes, leading to an insane workload. Some courses are so incompetently taught by a lecturer putting in such little effort you have to wonder why they even chose a career that involves teaching, especially in maths. I think they are overworked already with their other responsibilities. Some courses had badly copy-pasted slides that can be found online, and the lecturer seemed as if he had never even seen them before when trying to read them out. If you have ever seen lectures from top American unis, do not expect anywhere near that quality of teaching or effort put in.

Imperial is a great place with an immense amount of opportunity for every student, there are countless clubs and societies and it is refreshing to be around very clever people all the time. Nonetheless there are no humanities or arts students on campus which changes the vibe a bit.

amazing uni with incredible facilities, could improve on sports

Horrible student culture, worse departmental running i've ever seen. They just don't care about welfare and mental health despite what they say. Careers service is great though!

Can’t really live on campus as it’s in south ken. On the flip side it’s a really nice area, compared to, say, queen mary’s. Apart from that it’s a really well funded uni and does it’s best to cater to every aspect of students’ lives.

Hard work and lots of work but worth it

This university is a sausage-fest with 3 counselors per thousands of students. Don't come here if you care about your mental, social and physical health. Doesn't actually open up as many job prospects as you may think. A bit too expensive to live in London too. Student union doesn't actually care about its students. Campus is tiny and has very expensive, yet tasteless food.

Imperial is without a doubt up there with the most boring universities in the country in terms of nightlife. Because it only offers STEM courses, there are no History, English or Art students who at other unis are more likely to be keen to go out all the time. As a result, if you come here you will most likely not have the typical uni experience unless you're very lucky and find a great group of mates. Go to UCL

stressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressfulstressful

Hated 90% of my time here. Made some good friends that said.

Small, like-minded student body. Some super nerdy folks but can be surprisingly fun!

Amazing university. Except it's not for everyone.

Very focused on research. Poor organisation. Clubs and societies are diverse and very fun!

Studied here for the Conservation Science MSc degree in the Silwood Campus. The campus itself is isolated from the main Kensington campus and throughout the year course there were no efforts made by staff to aid students who wanted to travel there. The main director for our course was condescending and always gave misleading information that always seemed to contradict the course guidebook as well as the other director. The facilities were decent but I've heard that the accommodation facilities (ie washing machines/hobs) were often breaking down and needing maintenance. Course content was good and enjoyable but it could do with better coordination and organisation. Which leads to the topic of administration. The admin team was, to be honest, quite incompetent at times. Bus schedules were sometimes not on time and causing the students to wait up to 40 minutes. Requests made by email were not always followed and required students to visit the office in person.

Awful organisation, examiners do not go through examiner's training. Bias towards Home students and British students party with course directors. (Medical School)

stress-inducing and badly designed study space, over-crowded, bad management, over-priced everything.

Imperial provides a world class education. Its facilities remain some of the best in the world and its cutting edge research makes it a dynamic and exciting place to work and study.

I’m not into the social aspect of university life so so can’t really comment on it but I love my course, it’s challenging but the lecturers are fantastic and we have access to some really good resources. 1st year accommodation is pretty great too, in comparison to other unis I’d say you’d enjoy your 1st year here more if you’re slightly introverted but that’s just my opinion.

I'm a second year at imperial, a comittee member of a society and really the only issue I've had with the uni is with the student union, which changes year by year.

Very stressful and difficult content

One of the best universities, super convenient, everything is a walk away and the staff are friendly and eager to help. Location is good and accessible.

Lots of clubs and societies, brilliant place for studying,

I've found all my lecturers to be wonderful and our specific education Office listens to our problems and gives us help if we need it. However, the students we've elected into the union don't get as much as control in important matters to the students as they should. This has resulted in threats of closure of important students outlets, especially Reynolds bar which is the only imperial outlet for medical students at Charing Cross, and a lack of respect regarding pay and food on shift for student workers like myself at the Union bar and shop.

I don't see why this uni receives such massive amounts of hate from its own students online... We seem to be a group of proud people in real life

Facilities are good, but only made for about half the capacity they need to be for. Whole university has a toxic competitive atmosphere and basically everyone's depressed most of the time

Honestly, the university itself seems amazing in principle, hence why people fight to get there! And the courses are actually really interesting. But in terms of stress, workload and general student happiness, I think many people would agree it’s one of the worst universities out there...

Pretty stressful and awful boy/girl ratio

Located in the heart of London, this bustling University provides top-class education from the leaders of its fields. Imperial College, London always strives to be student centred because they strongly believe that students' views matter. The campus in South Kensington is large and equipped with several cafes and bars. The majority of lectures are held here, except if you're a medic which means you will also be in Reynolds Building, Charing Cross Hospital. The University provides a lot of help and academic resources and useful tips and guidance on revision. The sessions are fun, engaging, thought-provoking and challenging. The course has also been structured so modules studied simultaneously accompany each other! The student union hold a lot of events as well as the clubs and societies. Imperial College has the most clubs and societies than any other university in the world!

Amazing AmazingAmazingAmazingAmazingAmazingAmazingAmazingAmazingAmazingAmazing Amazing Amazing Amazing Amazing Amazing Amazing Amazing Amazing Amazing Amazing Amazing Amazing Amazing

Overworked, lectures don't care, should have done an economics degree

Brilliant university where you're being taught by world leaders in their fields. Too bad the workload is horrendous and the stress is ridiculous forcing you to hate a subject you once loved. Reducing the workload would skyrocket student satisfaction but until that happens we're gonna be dropping like flies.

Horrible. Waste of my youth. would not do again.

BSc Medical Biosciences is very very very unorganised and highly disapointing - oversold to prospective students massively.

Overall an excellent university with plenty of opportunities around. If you are willing to choose to go above the minimum it is very enjoyable. Only those who are used to having everything handed to them, born with their silver spoons, would be disappointed by Imperial, as they make everyone work equally.

High quality degree, valuable mainly because its harsh on you so you learn a lot. Worlds leading experts in their field, which means that sometimes some of them dont care about undergrads. Steep learning curve.

The best university in the UK, without a doubt.

Not far enough into the course to be able to give a sufficient review. Enjoying so far

Fantastic campus right in the heart of London.

Great atmosphere. Wonderful societies. Delicious food. Amazing facilities eg library, common room.

I could not think of a better place to be spending 6 years of my life, clubs and societies to cater for anyone's needs. A centre academic excellence and quality teaching on an international level, and you can really tell that the courses are well designed and well taught. Some of the facilities are slightly outdated, but we make the most of them!

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534 reviews for Imperial College London

Our collection of real, honest student reviews of unis and courses is the largest in the UK, and helps you make well-informed decisions about your future. Student reviews also form the basis of our annual Whatuni Student Choice Awards (WUSCAs), which highlight great work carried out by institutions for their students.

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Computing MEng (Hons)

Great place to meet like minded STEM people.

Many good lecturers.

Bit far but the price reflects it.

Civil and Environmental Engineering PhD

Top ranking of uni is the best in it in addition to diversity. However, supervision is not the best and facilities are not thatgreat. Also, the campus doesn't have spacious green area at all. Buildings are old and suffer from aging

Supervision is not perfect and facilities are not complete. Tutors don't have enough knowledge in the areas they are especialized in. The overall organisational structure is very good, however.

Everthingis great at Imperial

Everything is good. They are doing great.

Geology BSc (Hons)

Make the library better

Tutor leaves us after first year

Aeronautics PhD

Medical biosciences bsc (hons).

Great course with many clubs and societies.

Good for people who like independent learning.

Mechanical Engineering MEng (Hons)

Very highly motivated cohort of people studying together. Amount of collaboration between students is good. Towards end of term as deadlines approach, there is a large in red in general stress of students also suffering from fatigue and burnout.

Really good lecturers who try and help you to understand the content. Would prefer some more in real life scenarios to get a fuller understanding of possible potential

Conveniently close to campus and all other sites of convenience. Really nice to be able to be so close to lectures and student events. Management are slow to respond to reported defects and some rooms are much larger than others (and yet price per room is standard)

Mathematics BSc (Hons)

The university is great to study at with lots of events and societies to attend. The teaching is excellent however the course is quite intense meaning you have to spend a lot of time studying leaving less time to socialise.

The course is very interesting and most of the lectures are great and really enthusiastic about what they are teaching. The course however is very intense and extremely challenging at times.

Living in the middle of London is great with lots to do all the time. Hyde park is close to campus which is great for taking a walk in between classes. However living in London means that most things are more expensive than at other places.

The hall feels very safe to stay in and all the people here are really friendly. It is less than a 5 minute walk to Hyde park and most of the rooms have great views. The rooms are very big and spacious making them comfortable and enjoyable to spend time in. At times it can get noisy with one of the main university bars right in the centre.

MSc Computing (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning)

I don't know a lot about internships and career prospects

Computing BEng (Hons)

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Top Universities in London: UCL or Imperial?

Julia Gilmore

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Introduction

QS World University Rankings® 2022

Subject strengths , student community , tuition fees , financial aid .

As a city, London has plenty to offer - and so do its universities. However, when it comes to choosing the best university in England's capital, two London universities in particular stand out from the crowd.

University College London (UCL) and Imperial College London are the two highest-ranked London universities in the QS World University Rankings® 2022 , beating 18 other universities from the city and ranking in the top 10 in the world -- something both schools have managed consistently.

This year, Imperial climbed one place to rank seventh in the world, while UCL rose two places to rank joint eighth.

To get a better idea of whether you’d be best suited to UCL or Imperial, here’s a quick overview of the key similarities and differences:


QS World University Rankings® 2022	Ranked joint eighth in the world in 2022 Ranked 14th in the world by academics and 13th by employers 38th for faculty/student ratio 108th for research impact (citations per faculty member) 85th in the world for percentage of international faculty members, and 12th for international students	Ranked seventh in the world in 2022 Ranked 22nd in the world by academics and ninth by employers 27th for faculty/student ratio 64th for research impact (citations per faculty member) 47th in the world for percentage of international faculty members, and 10th for international students
Subject strengths*	12th in the world for arts & humanities 48th for engineering & technology 10thfor life sciences & medicine Joint 57th for natural sciences 28th for social sciences & management	233rd in the world for arts & humanities Eighth for engineering & technology 12th for life sciences & medicine Ninth for natural sciences Joint 60th for social sciences & management
Location	Main campus is located in Bloomsbury, central London	Main campus is in South Kensington, west London
Student community	Around 43,800 in total 53 percent international students	Around 19,904 Of these, around 60 percent are international.
Tuition fees (2021/22)	UK undergraduates: £9,250 per year International students: £23,300 to £31,200 annually for most undergraduate programmes. Medicine: TBC (see UCL prospectus page for more information)	UK undergraduates: £9,250 per year International students: £32,000 to £34,500 annually for most undergraduate programs Medicine: £45,300 per year for international students

*Based on the broad subject areas in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021 .

As mentioned earlier, Imperial ranks slightly above UCL in the QS World University Rankings® 2022, with Imperial ranking seventh and UCL ranking joint eighth.

Although both schools rank well across the majority of indicators, they clearly each have their strengths. UCL beats Imperial by eight positions in the academic reputation indicator; whereas Imperial comes out on top in the employer reputation indicator, ranking ninth to UCL’s 13th.

Both schools have a high faculty/student ratio, although Imperial places in 27th and UCL ranks 38th. Imperial also has the advantage in the research impact indicator; ranking 44 positions above its rival.

Imperial and UCL are also proud both globally focused universities and rank within the top 100 for percentage of student faculty members and international students. Although both rank very similarly for these two indicators, Imperial beats UCL on each. Despite this advantage, both Imperial and UCL should appeal to students keen to join a truly international community of students and academics.

Rather than relying on the world ranking alone, it might be more useful to consider how these two universities perform for the subject you wish to study.

Looking firstly at the broad subject areas of the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021 , Imperial College London achieves the strongest score for the engineering and technology indicators, and is ranked seventh in the world for this subject area.

While UCL operates across the full academic spectrum, Imperial specialiseses primarily in science, engineering, management and medicine, and has a leading business school.

So, if your area of interest is one of the arts, humanities or social sciences disciplines, you should probably apply to UCL. Alongside world-leading departments of the arts and sciences, UCL also boasts a top-rated architecture school and one of the UK’s best art schools, the Slade School of Art.

You can get a closer insight into how UCL and Imperial compare for different disciplines in the table below.



Accounting & finance	=68th	33rd
Anatomy & physiology	7th	12th
Anthropology	6th	--
Archaeology	2nd	--
Architecture	--	--
Art & design	=48th	51-100
Biological sciences	15th	=13th
Business & management	=94th	34th
Chemistry	39th	12th
Classics & ancient history	22nd	--
Communication & media studies	=44th	--
Computer science & information systems	=23rd	16th
Dentistry	12th	--
Development studies	--	51-100
Earth & marine sciences	=34th	24th
Economics	16th	53rd
Education & training	1st	8th
Engineering (chemical)	=24th	10th
Engineering (civil)	51-100	6th
Engineering (electrical)	=49th	9th
Engineering (mechanical)	111th	8th
Engineering (petroleum)	--	6th
English language & literature	13th	--
Environmental sciences	33rd	10th
Geography	9th	--
Geology	40th	29th
Geophysics	38th	33rd
History	=19th	--
Law	15th	--
Library & information management	19th	--
Linguistics	=17th	--
Materials science	60th	14th
Mathematics	=42nd	11th
Medicine	9th	10th
Modern languages	20th	--
Pharmacy	7th	=26th
Philosophy	22nd	--
Physics & astronomy	=31st	11th
Politics	42nd	--
Psychology	=10th	--
Social policy & administration	=28th	101-120
Sociology	20th	--
Sports-related subjects	20th	--
Statistics	28th	10th
Theology, divinity & religious studies	101-120	--

UCL and Imperial are both located in the centre of London , close to dynamic and culture-rich areas full of museums, galleries, theatres and more. However, there are some differences in location that might influence your student experience.

While Imperial’s South Kensington location is central relative to the sprawling immensity of the Greater London Area, it’s actually located a little to the west of central London. Not that this is a bad thing: Imperial is near Harrods, Hyde Park, and the Science Museum and Natural History Museum, meaning it’s based in one of London’s most attractive and desirable postcodes.

UCL’s Bloomsbury campus is a small enclave of calm amid London’s bustling centre. At equal distances from Soho and King’s Cross, and in walking distance to Chinatown and Piccadilly Circus, you couldn’t be much closer to the heart of the city.

One of UCL’s main student halls of residence is in nearby Camden Town, which is renowned for its lively social scene, famous market and live music. UCL’s central campus is next to the British Library, one of the most important and comprehensive research libraries in the world.

Meanwhile, Imperial’s main halls of residence are based near to its campus in West London, a well-heeled part of town with a slightly calmer atmosphere. Imperial’s location may be slightly more appealing to those who fancy some respite from the crowds, especially since it’s just a stone’s throw away from the large green spaces of Hyde Park.

London itself was ranked number one in the latest QS Best Student Cities ranking, thanks to its excellent scores in every indicator, apart from affordability.

UCL is one of the constituent colleges of the University of London, and one advantage of its Bloomsbury location is that it’s based in the middle of a huge student community. The main campus backs out onto a courtyard shared by SOAS and Birkbeck College , and the adjacent University of London Union is a hub of activity, from societies and student politics to live music and social events.

UCL’s total student population of 43,800 students puts it at the larger end of UK universities. When the student populations of the other nearby University of London colleges are factored in, its extended student community ranks among the largest in the world.

Imperial is slightly more self-contained, with a total student population less than half the size of UCL’s at around 19,904. Imperial was previously a member of the University of London - before becoming formally independent in 2007 - and its students are still integrated into the city’s wider student community. However, its location and independent status mean it remains separate, with a slightly more intimate community feel.

Domestic students starting their undergraduate studies will pay £9,250 per year. At undergraduate level, international students at UCL can expect to pay around £23,300 to £31,200 for most programs.

In 2018, UCL implemented ‘fixed fees’ for international undergraduates, meaning your tuition fees will stay the same in each year of your course. However, this does not apply to those studying medicine.

Imperial charges international students £32,000 to £34,500 annually for most of its undergraduate and postgraduate courses, with medicine coming in at £45,300 per year.

Science and engineering degrees at both universities are often three-year programs with an optional fourth year, leading to MSc or MEng qualifications. Undergraduate-level arts, humanities and social sciences degrees at UCL are nearly always three years in length.

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"I have so many wonderful memories of my MBA and I think, for me, the biggest thing that I've taken away was not what I learned in the classroom but the relationships, the friendships, the community that I'm now part of."

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"The best part of my degree is getting to know more about how important my job as an architect is: the hidden roles I play, that every beautiful feature has significance, and that even the smallest details are well thought out."

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While those overseas tuition fees might seem expensive, the good news is there are funding opportunities available for both universities.

UCL’s website offers a scholarship finder tool, allowing you to search for scholarships matching your subject and demographics.

Imperial offers one of the most generous bursary schemes in the country for home students – the Imperial Bursary . It also has a scholarship search tool , which provides you with more personalised results dependent on the level of detail you provide.

As well as looking on the official university websites, there are many external scholarships you could consider, including those funded by the UK government. One example is the British Chevening Scholarships , which aim to develop global leaders by providing full or part funding for graduate programs in any subject. You can browse other UK scholarships here .

This article was originally published in December 2013. It is updated after every QS World University Rankings launch, most recently in June 2021.

You can read about more of the top universities in London here .

Want more content like this? Register for free site membership to get regular updates and your own personal content feed.

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Julia is the Assistant Editor for TopUniversities, publishing articles for students and graduates across the world. A native Londoner, she holds an MSc in Marketing Strategy & Innovation from Cass Business School and a BA in Classical Studies & English from Newcastle University.

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WCRF/AICR Systematic Literature Review Continuous Update Project Report: The Associations between Food, Nutrition and Physical Activity and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer 2010

This report is a part of a series of systematic literature reviews conducted by a research team at the Imperial College London for the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute of Cancer Research. The Continuous Update Project (CUP) reviews the epidemiological research collected in the systematic literature reviews and publishes summaries and conclusions based on that research here .

World Cancer Research Fund, American Institute for Cancer Research, Imperial College London. WCRF/AICR Systematic Literature Review Continuous Update Project Report: The Associations between Food, Nutrition and Physical Activity and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer. Oct 2010.

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Study at Imperial College London

Imperial college london ratings and description, about imperial college london, studies at imperial college london.

Among the honourable and important alumni and staff, Imperial College London counts 15 Nobel laureates: Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, Sir Abdus Salam, Sir Alexander Fleming, Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett, Sir William Crookes, Sir Christopher Kelk Ingold, Thomas Huxley, Sir John Pendry, H.G. Wells, Geoffrey Wilkinson and Dame Sally Davies. Imperial College London also includes among its alumni and staff 2 Fields Medalists, 70 Fellows of the Royal Society, 78 Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences and 82 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Imperial College London operates an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Programme (UROP), that offers over 300 students a year a hands-on experience in one of their research teams. The college works with world leading staff that contribute to the greater teaching experience. Among this leading staff, we can find Professor John Burland, who worked over 11 years in the Tower of Pisa project to save it from collapsing, also Professor Michele Dougherty, Principal Investigator on the Cassini spacecraft, orbiting Saturn, and Professor Joanna Haigh – former president of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Life at Imperial College London

Imperial College London offers many activities to its students, including Imperial College Radio, Imperial College TV, Felix Newspaper, Imperial College Boat Club, Exploration Club, and the Dramatic Society.

Imperial College owns and manages twenty-one halls of residence in Inner London, Ealing, Ascot and Wye. Over three thousand rooms are available to students, guaranteeing first year undergraduates a place in college residences. Most of the students in these residences are first-year students, since the rooms are granted at the time of admission.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT Imperial College London

Based on the EDUopinions rankings, the Imperial College London rating is 4.3. If you want to know more about this school, read the student reviews on our website .

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241 Student Reviews

Great resources, great lecturers and lots of skills gained. The campus is in the heart of London and provides great job opportunities in many fields. In addition, there are loads of societies catering to everyone’s interests

Imperial is tough. It will work you hard; work hard, play harder. Imperial sets you up for life, from skills to networking opportunities from peers to faculty to job prospects. With more societies than any other university Imperial boasts a home for you.

Imperial is a world renowned research institution boasting challenging courses where you will learn practical skills and deepen your knowledge. Perfect for students looking for a challenge. However, I find that your experience at Imperial is entirely course dependent. I am in a department that is has great communication between professors, and between the staff and students, but other courses have notoriously bad communication, which provides an impersonal and dissatisfactory student experience, to the point that some of the courses are under review for poor student satisfaction. Overall, Imperial is what you make of it. It is a great place, with abounding opportunity, but only for the student that will take the initiative and make the most of the experience.

The methods used to foster insight by the tutors at Imperial College are not only hands on, but also facitlitate memory. My classes were pegged on course materials as well as experiantial learning, where both professors and students shared their perspectives on a variety of topical issues that affected not only life at the college, but also focused on giving solutions to the signiicant challenges that weigh down humanity. Every experience was worthy, and every class built me.

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From clean classes to good relationships reinforced by the culture of unity in the institution, Imperial College is an instituion that is worthy of recommendation. The professors at Imperial College are knowledgeable and friendly, and are passionate about delivering to their best. The mentorship and lessons I graduated with have come in handy, and have built me to who I have become. I hope to further my studies at the very school.

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Literature review
With this in mind the important first step in a literature review is to find relevant, quality and academic literature on which to base your literature review on. You might refer back to the Find it section or make an appointment with your Subject librarian. Source: Oliver, P. (2012) Succeeding with your literature review: A handbook for students.
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Key Information. Course Level: Level 1. Duration: Approximately 2 hours. Format: Self-paced online Blackboard course. This online course will equip you with key skills and knowledge on how to start, what to include and how to structure your master-level literature review. You can complete the course at your own pace and start at any time.
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All educational research requires a thorough review of appropriate literature, by way of contextualising and justifying the intended study. Before yo...
Identifying literature
All educational research requires a thorough review of appropriate literature, by way of contextualising and justifying the intended study. ... Imperial College London. Latest News. Fishery guidance and brain repair: News from Imperial. South Korea minister visits Imperial to mark synthetic biology collaboration. Prostate cancer focal therapy ...
Preparing your Literature Review (Online Course)
Living in London London's fusion of culture, charm and career opportunities is hard to beat International students Students come from over 140 different countries to study at Imperial Campus life Experience what it's like to be a member of the College community
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A literature review gives the background needed to understanding research projects. ... International students Learn more about what Imperial has to offer students from around the world; Student life Discover more about our entrepreneurial community, and life in London; Research & Innovation. Close. Research and Innovation ; Research support ...
World Cancer Research Fund International: Continuous Update Project
World Cancer Research Fund International: Continuous Update Project-systematic literature review and meta-analysis of observational cohort studies on physical activity, sedentary behavior, adiposity, and weight change and breast cancer risk ... School of Public Health, Imperial College London, St. Mary's Campus, Norfolk Place, London, W2 1PG, UK.
Literature Review
Living in London London's fusion of culture, charm and career opportunities is hard to beat International students Students come from over 140 different countries to study at Imperial Campus life Experience what it's like to be a member of the College community
Literature searching and systematic reviews
Students and experienced reviewers alike will find it intuitive to use and it can be used to do a full systematic review or support a literature review done in a systematic manner; Imperial College users can invite external reviewers (e.g. from an NHS Trust or other university) to be co-reviewers, even if those reviewers don't have access to ...
Characteristics of Imperial College London's
Abstract. We identified 651 research outputs on the topic of COVID‐19 in the form of preprint, report, journal article, dataset, and software/code published by Imperial College London authors between January to September 2020. We sought to understand the distribution of outputs over time by output type, peer review status, publisher, and open ...
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The College recognises the need for researchers to protect their own research interests and both the College and its funding bodies encourage researchers to be as open as possible. This openness includes such common practices as the scholarly exchange of ideas and data and the submission of work to peer review or to another forum where it can ...
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Abdus Salam Library at South Kensington. Medical campus libraries at Charing Cross, Chelsea and Westminster, Hammersmith, Royal Brompton and St Mary's hospitals. Silwood Park Campus Library. GoStudy spaces. Many of our libraries are open 24 hours and our self-service facilities mean that you can borrow and return books at all times, and to any ...
Top Universities in London: UCL or Imperial?
University College London (UCL) and Imperial College London are the two highest-ranked London universities in the QS World University Rankings® 2022, beating 18 other universities from the city and ranking in the top 10 in the world -- something both schools have managed consistently. This year, Imperial climbed one place to rank seventh in ...
Preparing your Literature Review (Online Course)
Imperial College London. Latest News. Imperial expert's book explains why our gut microbiome matters. Imperial named UK's best university ... what to include and how to structure your master-level literature review. You can complete the course at your own pace and start at any time. The course activities will support you to verify your ...
WCRF/AICR Systematic Literature Review Continuous Update Project Report
WCRF/AICR Systematic Literature Review Continuous Update Project Report: The Associations between Food, Nutrition and Physical Activity and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer 2010 ... This report is a part of a series of systematic literature reviews conducted by a research team at the Imperial College London for the World Cancer Research Fund and ...
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I am currently a master's student at Imperial and am overall enjoying my course. I have been provided with extensive teaching and assessment which has challenged but has not been unbearable and there is a large student hub for social opportunities and bars for socialising.
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Imperial College London (reviews) 4.3 241 Reviews. ... Accommodation. Internationality. Value. Career Prospects. ABOUT IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON. Imperial College London is a public research university founded by Prince Albert in 1901, and located in London, United Kingdom. ... English Language & Literature 1 Programme. 3.0 Applied Medical ...
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Each box represents a stage in the Systematic Review process. Click on the link to be taken to more information about it. ... Imperial College London. Latest News. Imperial retains top spot in UK university league table. Award shortlists and interdisciplinary research grants: News from Imperial ... Scoping the existing literature - revised for ...
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Early Stage Review. A report (of about 4,000 words) should be submitted containing an extended literature review, an overview of progress to date and the overall plan of research. This would normally be presented in the form of an Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results to- date (if any) and a brief Discussion.
Preparing your Literature Review (Online Course)
Imperial College London. Latest News. Swimming with sharks and student support: News from the College. Q&A: Study finds hybrid solar energy systems could reduce global emissions. Imperial launches sixth form maths school aimed at under-represented students ... what to include and how to structure your master-level literature review. You can ...

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WCRF/AICR Systematic Literature Review Continuous Update Project Report: The Associations between Food, Nutrition and Physical Activity and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer 2010

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