From the Atlantic in 1935 , by Edwin Embree (see also yesterday's Atlantic Time-Travel Thursdays (Jake Lundberg) item yesterday discussing this):

How does one go about appraising the scholarly eminence of universities? In the first place, one may take the lists of the most distinguished scientists as published in American Men of Science and in somewhat similar records for the other branches of learning and tabulate the centres of concentration of these most eminent scholars. Second, since creative scholarship finds expression ultimately in publication, it is possible through the scientific journals to appraise the scholarly output of the several university faculties. The third and probably the soundest method is to rely on appraisals of the relative eminence of the several departments of

See Full Page