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Barbados vs Jamaica

On research quality in 2022-now, Jamaica ranks #136 in the world and Barbados #179, of 189 countries. Barbados stands higher in 0 of the 2 fields both publish in, Jamaica in 2.

Research profiles alike: 0.82very similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Barbados

World rank, 2022-now
#179
#181 all time
Works, 2022-now
622
fractional
Top-10% rate
6.3%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
36%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Virology, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Family Practice.

Jamaica

World rank, 2022-now
#136
#174 all time
Works, 2022-now
1.3k
fractional
Top-10% rate
6.6%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
30%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Horticulture, Library and Information Sciences, Cultural Studies.

Who leads, measure by measure?

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

Barbados 52 level2 Jamaica
  1. #179Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#136
  2. 0.78×Excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.73×
  3. 622Outputfractional works, 2022-now1.3k
  4. 6.3%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited6.6%
  5. 18.4Citations per workall time, per fractional work16.6
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 36%Open accessof its works free to read, all time30%
  8. 41%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time31%
  9. +27%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change-6%

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?

Barbados stands higher in 0 of 2 fields, Jamaica in 2. Jamaica leads most in Medicine (#111 against #128). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Barbados 02 Jamaica
  1. #128Medicine#111
  2. -Social Sciences#110

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 Barbados rankJamaica rank Barbados top 10%Jamaica top 10% Barbados worksJamaica works
Medicine #128 #111 5.6% 6.0% 212 250
Social Sciences - #110 - 6.2% - 320

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.

Barbados

▲ 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. Epidemiology57▲ 2.0×113 topics
  2. Climate Change28▲ 1.49×60 topics
  3. Public Health27▲ 2.7×47 topics
  4. Globalization27▲ 1.96×45 topics
  5. Sustainability26▲ 1.50×40 topics
  6. Mental Health20▲ 1.99×30 topics
  7. Inflammation18▲ 1.19×57 topics
  8. Treatment18▲ 2.1×44 topics
  9. COVID-1918▲ 1.93×23 topics
  10. Diagnosis17▲ 2.6×39 topics
  11. Risk Factors16▲ 2.1×30 topics
  12. Quality of Life16▲ 1.59×46 topics
  13. Vulnerability15▲ 9.3×8 topics
  14. Diabetes15▲ 4.2×16 topics
  15. Identity14▲ 2.9×18 topics
  16. Cardiovascular Disease14▲ 1.71×31 topics
  17. Depression13▲ 2.2×17 topics
  18. Pandemic13▲ 1.93×11 topics
  19. Gender13▲ 3.5×18 topics
  20. Obesity12▲ 2.3×20 topics
  21. Management12▲ 2.2×28 topics
  22. Culture12▲ 3.3×12 topics
  23. Postcolonialism12▲ 12×7 topics
  24. Health Education12▲ 3.8×8 topics
  25. Non-Communicable Diseases11▲ 5.9×3 topics
  26. Maternal Mortality11▲ 7.1×5 topics
  27. Resilience11▲ 3.2×11 topics
  28. Global Burden10▲ 2.7×11 topics
  29. Pathogenesis10▲ 2.9×23 topics
  30. Infectious Diseases9▲ 4.0×7 topics
  31. Primary Care9▲ 3.5×12 topics
  32. Vaccine Development9▲ 5.0×10 topics
  33. Governance9▲ 3.9×6 topics
  34. Race8▲ 10×8 topics
  35. Decolonization8▲ 14×5 topics
  36. Politics8▲ 4.4×7 topics
  37. Global Trade8▲ 5.7×6 topics
  38. Chronic Disease8▲ 6.3×4 topics
  39. Ocean Acidification7▲ 13×3 topics
  40. Caribbean7▲ 54×3 topics

Jamaica

▲ 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. Globalization100▲ 3.5×68 topics
  2. Epidemiology76▲ 1.31×109 topics
  3. Identity58▲ 5.5×25 topics
  4. Climate Change53▲ 1.35×74 topics
  5. Gender52▲ 6.7×21 topics
  6. Culture49▲ 6.5×12 topics
  7. Race48▲ 28×7 topics
  8. Politics48▲ 13×9 topics
  9. Mental Health47▲ 2.3×30 topics
  10. Postcolonialism47▲ 23×10 topics
  11. Sustainability45▲ 1.27×52 topics
  12. Nationalism45▲ 6.9×9 topics
  13. Caribbean42▲ 160×3 topics
  14. Dancehall38▲ 362×1 topic
  15. Public Health38▲ 1.79×49 topics
  16. Deep Learning37▼ 0.74×61 topics
  17. Economic Growth36▲ 3.0×21 topics
  18. Sustainable Development29▲ 1.26×33 topics
  19. Risk Factors27▲ 1.72×29 topics
  20. Social Capital26▲ 3.5×14 topics
  21. Human Rights25▲ 1.67×29 topics
  22. Vulnerability24▲ 7.1×8 topics
  23. Economic Development23▲ 1.99×10 topics
  24. Global Trade20▲ 6.9×6 topics
  25. Social Justice18▲ 2.1×22 topics
  26. Resilience18▲ 2.5×13 topics
  27. Health Equity17▲ 3.9×6 topics
  28. Labor Market16▲ 4.0×7 topics
  29. Child Development16▲ 2.7×8 topics
  30. Migration16▲ 3.2×14 topics
  31. International Law14▲ 3.1×11 topics
  32. Non-Communicable Diseases14▲ 3.6×4 topics
  33. Health Outcomes14▲ 3.6×7 topics
  34. Fiscal Policy14▲ 4.6×5 topics
  35. Health Inequities12▲ 16×2 topics
  36. COVID-19 Impact12▲ 4.8×4 topics
  37. Poverty Reduction11▲ 6.0×5 topics
  38. Public Health Governance11▲ 19×2 topics
  39. Corporate Political Activity11▲ 22×1 topic
  40. Health In All Policies11▲ 22×1 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?

Jamaica has out-published Barbados every year since 1980.

still counting200400Jamaica280 in 2025Barbados157 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%Jamaica0.0048% in 2025Barbados0.0027% 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%Jamaica8.1% in 2025Barbados6.3% 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.

Barbados 05 level0 Jamaica
  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, Barbados or Jamaica?

Jamaica publishes 2.0× as much research as Barbados in 2022-now (1.3k against 622 fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Barbados or Jamaica?

6.6% of Jamaica's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 6.3% for Barbados.

Is Barbados or Jamaica growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +27% against 2018-21 for Barbados, and -6% for Jamaica.

Which has more open access research, Barbados or Jamaica?

36% of Barbados's research is free to read, against 30% of Jamaica's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Barbados or Jamaica?

Barbados holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Jamaica 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%.

Barbados

  1. 1University of the West Indies5.7% top 10% · 307 works
  2. 2Ross University School of Medicine4.5% top 10% · 141 works
  3. 3Ministry of Health10.1% top 10% · 68 works

Jamaica

  1. 1University of the West Indies System5.5% top 10% · 554 works
  2. 2University of the West Indies5.4% top 10% · 295 works
  3. 3University of Technology, Jamaica6.7% top 10% · 152 works
  4. 4International University of the Caribbean17.4% top 10% · 86 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.

Barbados

  1. 1 Anselm J. M. Hennis #269,326 worldwide 5.5k citations · 141 works
  2. 2 David Farrell #278,464 worldwide 2.7k citations · 98 works
  3. 3 Roché Mahon #483,598 worldwide 1.1k citations · 36 works
  4. 4 Nkemcho O. Ojeh #680,211 worldwide 2.7k citations · 56 works
  5. 5 Ian Richard Hambleton #817,897 worldwide 35k citations · 263 works

Jamaica

  1. 1 Donovan R. Campbell #121,367 worldwide 2.8k citations · 72 works
  2. 2 Susan P. Walker #130,731 worldwide 22k citations · 123 works
  3. 3 Colin A. McKenzie #144,581 worldwide 40k citations · 78 works
  4. 4 Terrence Forrester #183,630 worldwide 18k citations · 64 works
  5. 5 Shelly McFarlane #303,387 worldwide 20k citations · 67 works