“Index the World for the Future”—this was the theme for the New Year 2022 Global Index Symposium jointly held by the BFSU Academy of Regional and Global Governance and Indexpedia in the multi-purpose hall at the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press on Friday, 31^st December. Celebrating the culmination of BFSU’s pathbreaking work in index research led by university president Yang Dan, the symposium witnessed the unveiling of “Meta Index”—the world’s first index of indices.

In today’s information age, indices are important tools for understanding the world. Yet as the number of indices around the world rapidly increases, we now find ourselves with access to millions of indices covering a vast range of subjects. This presents us with a significant challenge: How do we determine which indices have the most value?

In this context, Beijing Foreign Studies University has developed Indexpedia—the world’s first encyclopedia of indices—and is now launching Meta Index, an index of indices. By evaluating the indices on Indexpedia, Meta Index aims to provide users with quick access to the world’s most valuable indices.

Drawing its evaluation methods from bibliometrics and altmetrics, Meta Index uses data from multiple sources such as periodical articles, search engines and media outlets to evaluate the indices on Indexpedia across three indicators—importance, authoritativeness and influence.

Meta Index is objective, automatic and flexible. All index data is sourced from objective outcome data and can be collected, processed and calculated by the program automatically. By allowing users to freely combine evaluation indicators as required, Metaindex can accommodate a diversity of user needs.  

Indicator System of Meta Index

Top 10 Indices