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Afghanistan vs Mongolia

On research quality in 2022-now, Afghanistan ranks #106 in the world and Mongolia #107, of 189 countries. Afghanistan stands higher in 2 of the 12 fields both publish in, Mongolia in 10.

Research profiles alike: 0.50similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Afghanistan

World rank, 2022-now
#106
#135 all time
Works, 2022-now
4.5k
fractional
Top-10% rate
9.0%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
86%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Transportation, Political Science and International Relations, Chemical Health and Safety.

Mongolia

World rank, 2022-now
#107
#119 all time
Works, 2022-now
6.4k
fractional
Top-10% rate
5.0%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
55%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Fuel Technology, Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design, Music.

Who leads, measure by measure?

Afghanistan leads on 5 of 9 measures: research quality, excellence for its fields, top-10% rate, open access and growth. Mongolia leads on 2 of 9 measures: output and international co-authorship. The two are level on citations per work and institutions in the world top 100.

Afghanistan 52 level2 Mongolia
  1. #106Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#107
  2. 0.80×Excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.52×
  3. 4.5kOutputfractional works, 2022-now6.4k
  4. 9.0%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited5.0%
  5. 4.7Citations per workall time, per fractional work4.7
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 86%Open accessof its works free to read, all time55%
  8. 34%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time39%
  9. +155%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+58%

A rank is drawn as its standing: the longer the bar, the nearer the top. Anything else is drawn against the larger of the two, and two values a hair apart are called level. Quality, excellence and the top-10% rate are explained in the methodology.

Who leads in each field?

Afghanistan stands higher in 2 of 12 fields, Mongolia in 10. Mongolia leads most in Medicine (#101 against #115); Afghanistan leads most in Agricultural and Biological Sciences (#95 against #107). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Afghanistan 210 Mongolia
  1. #95Agricultural and Biological Sciences#107
  2. -Arts and Humanities#68
  3. -Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#88
  4. -Business, Management and Accounting#95
  5. #94Computer Science#105
  6. -Earth and Planetary Sciences#63
  7. -Economics, Econometrics and Finance#91
  8. #99Engineering#95
  9. -Environmental Science#98
  10. #115Medicine#101
  11. -Psychology#84
  12. #89Social Sciences#88

Standing is the percentile of world rank within each field, 2022-now; the printed number is the rank itself. A dash means the field is too small there to rank. How sides are compared.

The numbers behind each field

Click a heading to sort. The side that does better in a pair of columns is shaded: a lower rank, a higher rate, more works.

Field Afghanistan rankMongolia rank Afghanistan top 10%Mongolia top 10% Afghanistan worksMongolia works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #95 #107 8.9% 5.0% 317 358
Arts and Humanities - #68 - 6.3% - 485
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology - #88 - 4.5% - 209
Business, Management and Accounting - #95 - 4.9% - 269
Computer Science #94 #105 13.5% 3.9% 260 513
Earth and Planetary Sciences - #63 - 3.3% - 216
Economics, Econometrics and Finance - #91 - 7.0% - 246
Engineering #99 #95 9.0% 3.3% 416 603
Environmental Science - #98 - 4.3% - 556
Medicine #115 #101 6.5% 5.2% 690 742
Psychology - #84 - 4.8% - 202
Social Sciences #89 #88 10.4% 6.1% 1.3k 1.2k

What is each known for?

The keywords that describe each side's research, by fractional works in 2022-now and weighted toward what it does more of than the world.

Afghanistan

▲ more of its work than of the world's◆ about the world's share▼ less than the world's
All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Security309▲ 8.7×24 topics
  2. Epidemiology296▲ 1.39×126 topics
  3. Conflict293▲ 34×9 topics
  4. Central Asia260▲ 69×4 topics
  5. Nation-Building252▲ 89×3 topics
  6. Reconstruction252▲ 28×6 topics
  7. State-Building251▲ 133×2 topics
  8. Afghanistan249▲ 196×1 topic
  9. Pakistan249▲ 196×1 topic
  10. Globalization244▲ 2.3×91 topics
  11. Ethnicity210▲ 11×14 topics
  12. Culture207▲ 7.4×16 topics
  13. History204▲ 5.5×20 topics
  14. Climate Change202▲ 1.39×97 topics
  15. Literature201▲ 6.9×23 topics
  16. Philosophy198▲ 8.4×13 topics
  17. Islam191▲ 17×5 topics
  18. Social Influence190▲ 17×3 topics
  19. Science189▲ 14×3 topics
  20. Malay Language188▲ 25×1 topic
  21. Sharia Law188▲ 25×1 topic
  22. Sustainable Development178▲ 2.1×76 topics
  23. Economic Security164▲ 14×7 topics
  24. Legal Regulation162▲ 14×7 topics
  25. Strategic Planning158▲ 20×3 topics
  26. Design158▲ 18×4 topics
  27. Modernization157▲ 16×4 topics
  28. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles157▲ 16×4 topics
  29. International Trade Law156▲ 22×2 topics
  30. Foresight156▲ 22×2 topics
  31. Air Force155▲ 25×1 topic
  32. Warfare155▲ 25×1 topic
  33. Public Oversight155▲ 24×1 topic
  34. Transport Policy155▲ 24×1 topic
  35. Human Rights133▲ 2.4×55 topics
  36. Teacher Training107▲ 3.3×16 topics
  37. Islamic Education87▲ 4.9×4 topics
  38. Religious Education68▲ 7.9×3 topics
  39. Madrasa66▲ 18×1 topic
  40. Muslim Students66▲ 18×1 topic

Mongolia

▲ more of its work than of the world's◆ about the world's share▼ less than the world's
All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Climate Change527▲ 2.6×105 topics
  2. Sustainability358▲ 1.97×106 topics
  3. Globalization307▲ 2.1×132 topics
  4. Artificial Intelligence271▲ 2.5×62 topics
  5. Machine Learning257◆ 1.04×88 topics
  6. Sustainable Development249▲ 2.1×83 topics
  7. Epidemiology227▼ 0.76×130 topics
  8. Deep Learning220▼ 0.86×81 topics
  9. Education190▲ 1.49×115 topics
  10. Adaptation165▲ 7.4×14 topics
  11. Ecological Knowledge164▲ 52×2 topics
  12. Innovation162▲ 2.1×71 topics
  13. Economic Development157▲ 2.6×41 topics
  14. Livelihoods149▲ 58×2 topics
  15. Land Management148▲ 57×2 topics
  16. Pastoralists147▲ 78×1 topic
  17. Rangeland Degradation147▲ 78×1 topic
  18. Economic Growth132▲ 2.2×33 topics
  19. Linguistics127▲ 11×9 topics
  20. History126▲ 2.4×45 topics
  21. Biodiversity114▲ 2.0×35 topics
  22. Etymology112▲ 32×2 topics
  23. Historical Phonology112▲ 32×2 topics
  24. Morphology111▲ 8.3×11 topics
  25. Language Contact104▲ 15×5 topics
  26. Virtual Reality103▲ 2.8×19 topics
  27. Syntax100▲ 19×3 topics
  28. Turkic94▲ 48×1 topic
  29. oral epics94▲ 48×1 topic
  30. Central Asia90▲ 17×4 topics
  31. Multimedia Technology83▲ 18×2 topics
  32. Economic Security80▲ 5.1×7 topics
  33. Arctic75▲ 9.1×4 topics
  34. Financial Security73▲ 9.2×3 topics
  35. Human-Computer Interaction70▲ 5.2×7 topics
  36. Eurasian Exchange61▲ 40×1 topic
  37. Silk Roads61▲ 40×1 topic
  38. Graphic Design59▲ 20×2 topics
  39. Digital Media Technology59▲ 21×1 topic
  40. Visual Communication Design59▲ 21×1 topic

Size is fractional works in the topics tagged with each word; colour is the word's share of the side's work against its share of the world's. Each word links to the topic it comes from most.

How has their output grown?

Mongolia has out-published Afghanistan every year since 1980.

still counting1k2kMongolia1,989 in 2025Afghanistan1,716 in 20251990200020102020

Fractional works per year.

Their share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share, because all of science grows. Each line is a side as a percentage of every work published that year.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Mongolia0.034% in 2025Afghanistan0.029% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

The share of each side's works, year by year, that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. The average of all institutions is 10.0% (why not 10%).

still counting5%10%15%Afghanistan8.5% in 2025Mongolia5.3% in 2025200020102020

A year with under 1% of the side's peak output is left out: a rate over a handful of papers says nothing. The latest years are still being cited.

Who holds more of the world's best institutions?

A country's average quality and the number of institutions it holds at the very top can disagree, and both are worth knowing. The counts are nested: an institution in the top 50 is also in the top 100.

Afghanistan 05 level0 Mongolia
  1. 0In the world top 500
  2. 0In the top 1000
  3. 0In the top 5000
  4. 0In the top 1,0000
  5. #51Elite capacityrank among 204 countries#51

Institutions ranked on research quality, 2022-now. Elite capacity counts a country's institutions by their worldwide rank, weighted so a place at #1 counts for more than one at #480.

Which publishes more research, Afghanistan or Mongolia?

Mongolia publishes 1.4× as much research as Afghanistan in 2022-now (6.4k against 4.5k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Afghanistan or Mongolia?

9.0% of Afghanistan's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 5.0% for Mongolia.

Is Afghanistan or Mongolia growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +155% against 2018-21 for Afghanistan, and +58% for Mongolia.

Which has more open access research, Afghanistan or Mongolia?

86% of Afghanistan's research is free to read, against 55% of Mongolia's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Afghanistan or Mongolia?

Afghanistan holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Mongolia 0; in the top 1,000 it is 0 against 0.

Which institutions lead in each country?

The highest-ranked institutions on each side on research quality, 2022-now. The percentage is each institution's own top-10% rate: the share of its works that are among the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. Every figure stands alone, so they do not add up to 100%.

Afghanistan

  1. 1Kabul University8.3% top 10% · 1.2k works
  2. 2Kandahar University12.7% top 10% · 207 works
  3. 3Herat University10.0% top 10% · 340 works
  4. 4Kabul Education University7.5% top 10% · 249 works
  5. 5Nangarhar University8.9% top 10% · 332 works
  6. 6Kardan University13.9% top 10% · 145 works

Mongolia

  1. 1National University of Mongolia4.4% top 10% · 1.2k works
  2. 2University of Finance and Economics4.8% top 10% · 561 works
  3. 3University of the Humanities9.3% top 10% · 603 works
  4. 4Mongolian Academy of Sciences2.2% top 10% · 827 works
  5. 5National Academy of Governance8.6% top 10% · 375 works
  6. 6Ider University5.8% top 10% · 187 works

The number is the rank inside the country. The track on each row is the top-10% rate; the tick is the average of all institutions, 10.0% (how it is set): teal above it, red below. The ranking is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each institution's own topics predict and adds a small reward for size, so the rates do not fall in order.

Who are the top researchers on each side?

The most cited researchers on each side, among those ranked.

Afghanistan

  1. 1 Muhammad Haroon Stanikzai #146,569 worldwide 9.4k citations · 116 works
  2. 2 Ahmad Shah Irshad #157,819 worldwide 648 citations · 45 works
  3. 3 Sajid Ullah #165,934 worldwide 561 citations · 24 works
  4. 4 Sayeed Naqibullah Orfan #191,532 worldwide 523 citations · 37 works
  5. 5 Abdul Qawi Noori #209,787 worldwide 484 citations · 30 works

Mongolia

  1. 1 Munkhtuya Tumurkhuu #26,249 worldwide 24k citations · 79 works
  2. 2 Yanjinlkham Munkhsaikhan #149,169 worldwide 3.7k citations · 25 works
  3. 3 Ryenchindorj Erkhembayar #171,998 worldwide 17k citations · 37 works
  4. 4 Болормаа Норов #173,089 worldwide 2.7k citations · 45 works
  5. 5 Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan #177,653 worldwide 2.4k citations · 82 works