Inside King Abdulaziz University's largest research partnership: Umm al-Qura University

Behind King Abdulaziz University's research output sits a defining relationship: 2,062 co-authored works with Umm al-Qura University (Saudi Arabia) in the five years to 2025, the university's single largest collaboration.

It anchors an unusually connected research base: 1,130 collaborating institutions across 79 countries, producing 41,369 joint works over the window, with international co-authors on 50% of output.

The collaborative work travels: its field-weighted citation impact stands at 2.66, where the world average is 1.0.

The Research Collaboration Index, the first global account of how universities actually collaborate, publishes its first full edition on Tuesday 15 September at 09:00 UK.

Every figure derives from the open global research record and is checkable at source.