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Australia vs Ireland

On research quality in 2022-now, Australia ranks #7 in the world and Ireland #30, of 189 countries. Australia stands higher in 26 of the 26 fields both publish in, Ireland in 0.

Research profiles alike: 0.84very similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Australia

World rank, 2022-now
#7
#8 all time
Works, 2022-now
343k
fractional
Top-10% rate
15.0%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
40%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Research and Theory, Public Administration, Medical Terminology.

Ireland

World rank, 2022-now
#30
#27 all time
Works, 2022-now
57k
fractional
Top-10% rate
12.5%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
42%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Geriatrics and Gerontology, Medical Terminology, Research and Theory.

Who leads, measure by measure?

Australia leads on 6 of 9 measures: research quality, citation excellence for its fields, output, top-10% rate, citations per work and institutions in the world top 100. Ireland leads on 3 of 9 measures: open access, international co-authorship and growth.

Australia 63 Ireland
  1. #7Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#30
  2. 1.29×Citation excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected1.01×
  3. 343kOutputfractional works, 2022-now57k
  4. 15.0%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited12.5%
  5. 28.5Citations per workall time, per fractional work23.1
  6. 5World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 40%Open accessof its works free to read, all time42%
  8. 26%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time28%
  9. -3%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+4%

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, citation excellence and the top-10% rate are explained in the methodology.

Who leads in each field?

Australia stands higher in 26 of 26 fields, Ireland in 0. Australia leads most in Energy (#6 against #36). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Australia 260 Ireland
  1. #6Agricultural and Biological Sciences#29
  2. #9Arts and Humanities#34
  3. #8Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#26
  4. #8Business, Management and Accounting#32
  5. #5Chemical Engineering-
  6. #12Chemistry#28
  7. #6Computer Science#30
  8. #7Decision Sciences#27
  9. #8Dentistry#31
  10. #6Earth and Planetary Sciences#30
  11. #8Economics, Econometrics and Finance#32
  12. #6Energy#36
  13. #5Engineering#30
  14. #4Environmental Science#32
  15. #5Health Professions#26
  16. #7Immunology and Microbiology#23
  17. #6Materials Science#28
  18. #12Mathematics#36
  19. #9Medicine#26
  20. #9Neuroscience#25
  21. #7Nursing#28
  22. #9Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics-
  23. #12Physics and Astronomy#35
  24. #5Psychology#25
  25. #7Social Sciences#32
  26. #6Veterinary-

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 Australia rankIreland rank Australia top 10%Ireland top 10% Australia worksIreland works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #6 #29 15.4% 16.0% 12k 2k
Arts and Humanities #9 #34 14.3% 12.3% 9.7k 2.3k
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology #8 #26 13.0% 12.2% 16k 2.9k
Business, Management and Accounting #8 #32 16.3% 17.5% 9.8k 1.3k
Chemical Engineering #5 - 15.5% - 779 -
Chemistry #12 #28 12.8% 11.0% 2.8k 587
Computer Science #6 #30 16.7% 11.6% 20k 3.7k
Decision Sciences #7 #27 15.0% 13.3% 3.7k 540
Dentistry #8 #31 18.7% 15.8% 1.1k 212
Earth and Planetary Sciences #6 #30 14.0% 11.9% 6.3k 598
Economics, Econometrics and Finance #8 #32 12.4% 11.8% 8.1k 1.3k
Energy #6 #36 17.0% 11.4% 2.7k 304
Engineering #5 #30 16.2% 12.8% 37k 5.6k
Environmental Science #4 #32 14.3% 12.2% 21k 2.4k
Health Professions #5 #26 15.4% 11.6% 16k 2.7k
Immunology and Microbiology #7 #23 13.3% 12.5% 3.6k 573
Materials Science #6 #28 15.8% 13.2% 6.8k 1k
Mathematics #12 #36 13.5% 10.8% 2.5k 441
Medicine #9 #26 14.0% 11.3% 80k 15k
Neuroscience #9 #25 12.8% 12.8% 7.1k 1.1k
Nursing #7 #28 15.7% 15.1% 1.9k 363
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics #9 - 14.2% - 814 -
Physics and Astronomy #12 #35 12.5% 9.5% 5.8k 841
Psychology #5 #25 16.5% 12.7% 18k 2.8k
Social Sciences #7 #32 16.0% 14.0% 47k 7.5k
Veterinary #6 - 14.8% - 738 -

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.

Australia

▲ 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. Epidemiology21k▲ 1.37×140 topics
  2. Climate Change15k▲ 1.45×132 topics
  3. Machine Learning11k▼ 0.86×97 topics
  4. Deep Learning11k▼ 0.79×85 topics
  5. Mental Health9,669▲ 1.74×48 topics
  6. Sustainability9,393◆ 0.99×140 topics
  7. Globalization9,017▲ 1.18×185 topics
  8. Public Health8,739▲ 1.54×77 topics
  9. Inflammation8,511◆ 1.03×83 topics
  10. Quality of Life8,357▲ 1.49×61 topics
  11. Risk Factors6,421▲ 1.50×37 topics
  12. Environmental Impact6,048◆ 0.91×74 topics
  13. Cardiovascular Disease5,888▲ 1.33×39 topics
  14. Depression5,660▲ 1.65×26 topics
  15. Treatment5,636▲ 1.19×52 topics
  16. Oxidative Stress5,147▼ 0.80×63 topics
  17. Healthcare5,064◆ 1.14×44 topics
  18. Social Media4,900◆ 0.91×41 topics
  19. Resilience4,114▲ 2.1×19 topics
  20. Metabolic Syndrome4,006▲ 1.27×24 topics
  21. Genetics3,863▲ 1.40×27 topics
  22. Biodiversity3,847▲ 1.30×38 topics
  23. Identity3,769▲ 1.34×79 topics
  24. Social Support3,667▲ 1.75×20 topics
  25. Mortality3,644▲ 1.65×13 topics
  26. Prevalence3,622▲ 2.3×15 topics
  27. Global Burden3,532▲ 1.66×12 topics
  28. Anxiety3,449▲ 1.86×12 topics
  29. Aging3,396▲ 1.60×19 topics
  30. Physical Activity3,364▲ 1.78×13 topics
  31. Ethics3,337▲ 1.69×62 topics
  32. Primary Care3,139▲ 2.2×15 topics
  33. Ethical Considerations3,109▲ 2.3×21 topics
  34. Adolescents3,045▲ 2.1×11 topics
  35. Neoliberalism2,940▲ 2.1×30 topics
  36. Health Equity2,880▲ 2.5×6 topics
  37. Vulnerability2,625▲ 2.9×9 topics
  38. Population Dynamics2,566▲ 2.6×13 topics
  39. Health Disparities2,466▲ 2.4×9 topics
  40. Decolonization1,706▲ 5.4×8 topics

Ireland

▲ 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. Epidemiology3,426▲ 1.32×140 topics
  2. Machine Learning1,968◆ 0.91×97 topics
  3. Deep Learning1,901▼ 0.85×85 topics
  4. Inflammation1,794▲ 1.30×83 topics
  5. Climate Change1,640◆ 0.93×126 topics
  6. Quality of Life1,554▲ 1.66×60 topics
  7. Public Health1,496▲ 1.58×74 topics
  8. Globalization1,471◆ 1.15×169 topics
  9. Mental Health1,411▲ 1.52×48 topics
  10. Sustainability1,365▼ 0.86×128 topics
  11. Identity1,177▲ 2.5×76 topics
  12. Risk Factors1,162▲ 1.63×37 topics
  13. Treatment1,069▲ 1.35×52 topics
  14. Nationalism979▲ 3.4×33 topics
  15. Healthcare974▲ 1.31×42 topics
  16. Depression963▲ 1.69×26 topics
  17. Cardiovascular Disease938▲ 1.27×39 topics
  18. Diagnosis800▲ 1.32×41 topics
  19. Mortality754▲ 2.0×13 topics
  20. Big Data735▲ 1.18×36 topics
  21. Metabolic Syndrome707▲ 1.34×24 topics
  22. Primary Care706▲ 2.9×15 topics
  23. Clinical Trials691▲ 1.59×19 topics
  24. Ethnicity682▲ 2.8×25 topics
  25. Aging678▲ 1.92×19 topics
  26. Clinical Practice Guidelines619▲ 1.73×14 topics
  27. Gender605▲ 1.73×57 topics
  28. Anxiety598▲ 1.93×12 topics
  29. Ethics595▲ 1.81×57 topics
  30. Conflict588▲ 5.6×11 topics
  31. Colonialism580▲ 1.88×50 topics
  32. Transition568▲ 9.9×6 topics
  33. Guidelines565▲ 1.84×13 topics
  34. Ethical Considerations545▲ 2.4×21 topics
  35. Reconciliation466▲ 42×2 topics
  36. Paramilitarism463▲ 37×2 topics
  37. Peace Process463▲ 37×2 topics
  38. Consociationalism460▲ 61×1 topic
  39. Northern Ireland460▲ 61×1 topic
  40. Elderly Patients408▲ 3.7×4 topics

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?

Australia has out-published Ireland every year since 1980.

still counting50k100kAustralia88k in 2025Ireland15k 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 counting1.0%2.0%3.0%Australia1.5% in 2025Ireland0.26% 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 counting10%20%Australia14.5% in 2025Ireland11.9% 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.

Australia 50 Ireland
  1. 3In the world top 500
  2. 5In the top 1000
  3. 19In the top 5002
  4. 35In the top 1,0006
  5. #6Elite capacityrank among 204 countries#26

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, Australia or Ireland?

Australia publishes 6.1× as much research as Ireland in 2022-now (343k against 57k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Australia or Ireland?

15.0% of Australia's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 12.5% for Ireland.

Is Australia or Ireland growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +4% against 2018-21 for Ireland, and -3% for Australia.

Which has more open access research, Australia or Ireland?

42% of Ireland's research is free to read, against 40% of Australia's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Australia or Ireland?

Australia holds 5 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Ireland 0; in the top 1,000 it is 35 against 6.

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%.

Australia

  1. 1The University of Melbourne14.9% top 10% · 23k works
  2. 2UNSW Sydney15.7% top 10% · 19k works
  3. 3Monash University16.1% top 10% · 20k works
  4. 4The University of Queensland15.0% top 10% · 20k works
  5. 5The University of Sydney14.4% top 10% · 25k works
  6. 6Australian National University13.7% top 10% · 11k works

Ireland

  1. 1Trinity College Dublin12.5% top 10% · 8.7k works
  2. 2University College Dublin13.3% top 10% · 11k works
  3. 3University College Cork12.4% top 10% · 6.3k works
  4. 4University of Limerick13.4% top 10% · 4k works
  5. 5Dublin City University14.9% top 10% · 3.6k works
  6. 6Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway13.3% top 10% · 4.6k 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.

Australia

  1. 1 Seyedali Mirjalili #9 worldwide 154k citations · 823 works
  2. 2 Weng Marc Lim #78 worldwide 42k citations · 417 works
  3. 3 Shulei Chou #90 worldwide 63k citations · 657 works
  4. 4 Shi‐Zhang Qiao #130 worldwide 159k citations · 811 works
  5. 5 X. J. Zhu #134 worldwide 95k citations · 301 works

Ireland

  1. 1 John F. Cryan #7,253 worldwide 121k citations · 1,303 works
  2. 2 Daniel G. Bradley #7,738 worldwide 31k citations · 297 works
  3. 3 Sarbast Moslem #8,647 worldwide 4.1k citations · 161 works
  4. 4 Liam O’Mahony #8,737 worldwide 35k citations · 369 works
  5. 5 John Gerard Laffey #9,250 worldwide 42k citations · 705 works

Other comparisons

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