University networks in the context of their academic excellence and openness: A comparative study of leading Czech and German universities

A simple methodology of multi-dimensional vector analysis for the comparison of the academic performance and the openness of university networks of the identical dimension was developed, which is illustrated by the example of the leading universities in the Czech Republic and Germany. In order to make this comparison, proximity measures were introduced with an arbitrary normalized vector of indicators to standard unit vectors that can be found with the aid of the normalized Euclidean distance. As an example of the indicators of academic performance and openness, the number of universities included in known global university rankings and having open access repositories and English versions of the university's website, and participating in Berlin Declaration of Open Access, SINAPSE platform, European University Association and the Magna Charter is considered.