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🎓 Top Research Universities in Canada

Universities and colleges in Canada ranked by the total citations their research has received (OpenAlex).

📅 2026📏 citations50 entries🇨🇦 See all of this country’s rankings →
Every dot is one entry, placed by its value (citations, logarithmic scale); the vertical bar marks each row’s median.
1
University of Toronto580,145 papers
67,254,568
2
University of British Columbia383,421 papers
35,392,941
3
McGill University303,931 papers
31,704,535
4
University of Alberta266,917 papers
23,029,578
5
McMaster University185,802 papers
21,793,324
6
Université de Montréal191,324 papers
17,087,559
7
University of Calgary198,535 papers
16,131,758
8
Western University174,237 papers
13,450,107
9
University of Ottawa167,411 papers
13,347,041
10
Université Laval135,509 papers
10,363,984
11
University of Waterloo157,274 papers
9,982,306
12
Queen's University122,023 papers
8,669,080
13
University of Manitoba119,387 papers
8,195,156
14
Dalhousie University107,737 papers
7,888,373
15
University of Guelph93,136 papers
6,338,927
16
Simon Fraser University87,190 papers
6,332,717
17
University of Victoria74,099 papers
6,026,210
18
University of Saskatchewan95,303 papers
5,755,732
19
Carleton University77,208 papers
4,573,651
20
York University90,925 papers
4,288,646
21
Université de Sherbrooke58,798 papers
3,751,470
22
Concordia University76,212 papers
3,477,531
23
Memorial University of Newfoundland58,315 papers
2,935,897
24
Université du Québec à Montréal62,930 papers
2,339,738
25
Polytechnique Montréal38,164 papers
2,100,405
26
Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique25,701 papers
1,959,699
27
Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research10,146 papers
1,740,573
28
University of New Brunswick34,943 papers
1,491,739
29
Toronto Metropolitan University53,251 papers
1,462,564
30
University of Windsor38,902 papers
1,454,211
31
Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec9,103 papers
1,400,936
32
Hotchkiss Brain Institute9,724 papers
1,266,089
33
University of Regina24,550 papers
1,222,565
34
University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus16,721 papers
1,016,547
35
Brock University23,864 papers
964,266
36
Université du Québec13,935 papers
886,064
37
University of Lethbridge15,664 papers
767,881
38
Rotman Research Institute4,525 papers
740,412
39
Lakehead University16,417 papers
731,958
40
McGill University and Génome Québec Innovation Centre1,399 papers
707,899
41
Laurentian University13,212 papers
700,872
42
Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières19,897 papers
695,316
43
Wilfrid Laurier University22,169 papers
686,444
44
University of Toronto Scarborough11,226 papers
685,084
45
Ontario Tech University15,876 papers
684,003
46
École de Technologie Supérieure17,897 papers
681,772
47
HEC Montréal12,833 papers
657,733
48
Trent University14,080 papers
655,227
49
St. Boniface Hospital5,059 papers
564,173
50
Collège MacDonald6,219 papers
493,181

Highlights

Within Canada, University of Toronto ranks first in 2026 with 67,254,568, followed by University of British Columbia (35,392,941) and McGill University (31,704,535).

University of Toronto is 1.9 times higher than University of British Columbia, the runner-up.

Across 50 entries, values run from 67,254,568 (University of Toronto) to 493,181 (Collège MacDonald), with a median of 2,030,052.

Source: OpenAlex, citations received by each institution's papers, 2026. Unit: citations.

Source: OpenAlex, citations received by each institution's papers · CC0 1.0 (OpenAlex) · fetched Oct 13, 2026 — Counts every citation to papers by authors affiliated with the institution, so large and old universities score high. It measures research impact, not teaching quality.