Johns Hopkins University is the 11th best university in the world, according to the first ever Best Global University rankings published by U.S. News & World Report on Tuesday. The rankings use different criteria than those used for the annual "best colleges" list, on which Johns Hopkins ranked 12th last month.

The new rankings include 500 universities in 49 countries. Sixteen of the top 20 universities are in the U.S., including Harvard, which tops the rankings.

Institutions are ranked based on their academic research performance and their global and regional reputations. By contrast, the U.S. News "best colleges" list released in September puts more emphasis on undergraduate academic reputation, retention of students, and how selective a university is. More information about the rankings methodology for the Best Global University rankings is available at usnews.com.

U.S. News also released top 100 rankings in 21 subject areas, with Johns Hopkins listed among the top 10 in the world on seven lists and among the top 100 on 15 list. JHU's subject area rankings are:

Social sciences and public health: 2

Clinical medicine: 2

Immunology: 4

Neuroscience and behavior: 6

Molecular biology and genetics: 7

Biology and biochemistry: 9

Microbiology: 9

Pharmacology and toxicology: 12

Space science: 13

Psychiatry/psychology: 24

Physics: 67

Computer science: 76

Geosciences: 81

Mathematics: 88

Agricultural sciences: 92