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Bulgaria vs Serbia

On research quality in 2022-now, Serbia ranks #74 in the world and Bulgaria #77, of 189 countries. Bulgaria stands higher in 6 of the 23 fields both publish in, Serbia in 17.

Research profiles alike: 0.54similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Bulgaria

World rank, 2022-now
#77
#78 all time
Works, 2022-now
36k
fractional
Top-10% rate
4.8%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
44%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: General Energy, Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management, Numerical Analysis.

Serbia

World rank, 2022-now
#74
#80 all time
Works, 2022-now
39k
fractional
Top-10% rate
7.4%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
59%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Biochemistry, Filtration and Separation, Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management.

Who leads, measure by measure?

Serbia leads on 5 of 9 measures: research quality, excellence for its fields, output, top-10% rate and open access. Bulgaria leads on 1 of 9 measures: growth. The two are level on citations per work, institutions in the world top 100 and international co-authorship.

Bulgaria 13 level5 Serbia
  1. #77Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#74
  2. 0.52×Excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.71×
  3. 36kOutputfractional works, 2022-now39k
  4. 4.8%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited7.4%
  5. 9.6Citations per workall time, per fractional work9.7
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 44%Open accessof its works free to read, all time59%
  8. 24%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time23%
  9. +22%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+3%

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?

Bulgaria stands higher in 6 of 23 fields, Serbia in 17. Serbia leads most in Economics, Econometrics and Finance (#57 against #75); Bulgaria leads most in Neuroscience (#41 against #60). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Bulgaria 617 Serbia
  1. #79Agricultural and Biological Sciences#70
  2. #57Arts and Humanities#67
  3. #60Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#69
  4. #81Business, Management and Accounting#67
  5. #50Chemistry#56
  6. #83Computer Science#71
  7. #68Decision Sciences#58
  8. #50Dentistry#49
  9. #70Earth and Planetary Sciences#69
  10. #75Economics, Econometrics and Finance#57
  11. #69Energy#58
  12. #83Engineering#69
  13. #87Environmental Science#79
  14. #94Health Professions#82
  15. #60Immunology and Microbiology#61
  16. #58Materials Science#60
  17. #54Mathematics#46
  18. #94Medicine#87
  19. #41Neuroscience#60
  20. -Nursing#63
  21. #57Physics and Astronomy#50
  22. #85Psychology#81
  23. #104Social Sciences#83

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 Bulgaria rankSerbia rank Bulgaria top 10%Serbia top 10% Bulgaria worksSerbia works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #79 #70 5.9% 8.7% 2.5k 2.9k
Arts and Humanities #57 #67 6.0% 6.8% 1k 1.3k
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology #60 #69 5.2% 6.7% 1.6k 1.7k
Business, Management and Accounting #81 #67 5.4% 9.0% 1.2k 1.6k
Chemistry #50 #56 6.4% 6.5% 626 674
Computer Science #83 #71 4.3% 8.0% 3.1k 2.5k
Decision Sciences #68 #58 4.3% 11.9% 412 505
Dentistry #50 #49 4.4% 8.7% 410 247
Earth and Planetary Sciences #70 #69 3.0% 8.7% 756 466
Economics, Econometrics and Finance #75 #57 6.1% 11.4% 926 2k
Energy #69 #58 2.7% 6.1% 424 304
Engineering #83 #69 3.4% 5.6% 6.2k 5.4k
Environmental Science #87 #79 4.1% 6.2% 1.9k 2.1k
Health Professions #94 #82 3.7% 8.0% 674 754
Immunology and Microbiology #60 #61 4.5% 7.1% 335 304
Materials Science #58 #60 3.7% 5.4% 1.1k 996
Mathematics #54 #46 7.4% 11.2% 722 733
Medicine #94 #87 4.8% 6.8% 5.9k 6.9k
Neuroscience #41 #60 5.2% 6.9% 435 485
Nursing - #63 - 8.0% - 244
Physics and Astronomy #57 #50 4.0% 4.3% 817 752
Psychology #85 #81 4.6% 5.4% 722 1.2k
Social Sciences #104 #83 6.5% 8.0% 3.3k 4.7k

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.

Bulgaria

▲ 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 Change1,519▲ 1.36×126 topics
  2. Machine Learning1,477◆ 1.08×97 topics
  3. Epidemiology1,397▼ 0.85×138 topics
  4. Sustainability1,336▲ 1.33×130 topics
  5. Sustainable Development1,218▲ 1.89×109 topics
  6. Renewable Energy1,186▲ 1.99×60 topics
  7. Deep Learning1,146▼ 0.81×85 topics
  8. Artificial Intelligence951▲ 1.62×65 topics
  9. Environmental Impact804◆ 1.15×74 topics
  10. Oxidative Stress777◆ 1.15×62 topics
  11. Energy Efficiency769▲ 2.0×46 topics
  12. Globalization741◆ 0.92×164 topics
  13. Big Data727▲ 1.85×35 topics
  14. Inflammation726▼ 0.83×83 topics
  15. Neural Networks716◆ 1.13×42 topics
  16. Educational Technology621▲ 1.28×46 topics
  17. Innovation595▲ 1.40×85 topics
  18. Remote Sensing569◆ 1.13×41 topics
  19. Economic Growth567▲ 1.69×36 topics
  20. Internet of Things566▲ 1.61×31 topics
  21. Biodiversity544▲ 1.74×38 topics
  22. Antioxidant505▲ 1.79×51 topics
  23. Supply Chain Management470▲ 1.27×27 topics
  24. E-Learning449◆ 1.13×25 topics
  25. Cyber-Physical Systems444▲ 4.1×9 topics
  26. Invasive Species444▲ 2.5×21 topics
  27. Security411▲ 1.50×31 topics
  28. Antioxidant Activity407▲ 1.59×32 topics
  29. Digital Transformation402▲ 1.81×32 topics
  30. Environmental Management393▲ 2.4×22 topics
  31. Smart Grid350▲ 2.4×10 topics
  32. Optimization331▲ 1.79×26 topics
  33. Biogeography319▲ 2.8×20 topics
  34. Power Electronics304▲ 2.3×8 topics
  35. Phylogeny238▲ 3.5×17 topics
  36. Taxonomy224▲ 3.8×15 topics
  37. Mediterranean219▲ 6.0×6 topics
  38. Black Sea165▲ 11×2 topics
  39. Caspian Sea160▲ 14×1 topic
  40. paleoceanography160▲ 14×1 topic

Serbia

▲ 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. Sustainable Development1,762▲ 2.6×103 topics
  2. Epidemiology1,436▼ 0.82×138 topics
  3. Sustainability1,361▲ 1.27×126 topics
  4. Economic Growth1,315▲ 3.7×36 topics
  5. Machine Learning1,287◆ 0.88×95 topics
  6. Climate Change1,224◆ 1.03×125 topics
  7. Oxidative Stress969▲ 1.34×63 topics
  8. Regional Development957▲ 6.4×19 topics
  9. Financial Performance950▲ 3.9×16 topics
  10. Environmental Impact911▲ 1.22×72 topics
  11. Inflammation888◆ 0.95×83 topics
  12. Organizational Culture887▲ 5.2×15 topics
  13. Innovation Management834▲ 12×10 topics
  14. Agricultural Sustainability824▲ 17×6 topics
  15. Small and Medium Enterprises822▲ 11×10 topics
  16. Globalization815◆ 0.95×163 topics
  17. Artificial Intelligence811▲ 1.30×62 topics
  18. Rural Tourism780▲ 57×2 topics
  19. Leadership Emergence780▲ 130×1 topic
  20. Renewable Energy736▲ 1.16×61 topics
  21. Antioxidant610▲ 2.0×51 topics
  22. Ethnicity558▲ 3.4×21 topics
  23. Identity558▲ 1.76×72 topics
  24. International Relations547▲ 5.2×29 topics
  25. Antioxidant Activity510▲ 1.87×32 topics
  26. Religion449▲ 2.2×40 topics
  27. International Trade429▲ 7.0×11 topics
  28. Legal Regulation412▲ 4.2×8 topics
  29. Foreign Policy403▲ 24×4 topics
  30. Sovereign Debt Crises397▲ 22×2 topics
  31. Nation-Building395▲ 17×4 topics
  32. Flavonoids371▲ 3.3×12 topics
  33. Negotiation368▲ 24×3 topics
  34. Commercial Diplomacy359▲ 70×1 topic
  35. Economic Diplomacy359▲ 70×1 topic
  36. Conflict313▲ 4.4×11 topics
  37. Balkans284▲ 28×2 topics
  38. Eastern Europe264▲ 12×3 topics
  39. Post-war244▲ 48×1 topic
  40. Yugoslavia244▲ 48×1 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?

Bulgaria has out-published Serbia every year since 2025, when it overtook it.

still counting5k10k15kBulgaria10k in 2025Serbia10k 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 counting0.10%0.20%0.30%Bulgaria0.18% in 2025Serbia0.18% 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%Serbia7.7% in 2025Bulgaria5.8% 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.

Bulgaria 05 level0 Serbia
  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, Bulgaria or Serbia?

Serbia publishes 1.1× as much research as Bulgaria in 2022-now (39k against 36k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Bulgaria or Serbia?

7.4% of Serbia's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 4.8% for Bulgaria.

Is Bulgaria or Serbia growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +22% against 2018-21 for Bulgaria, and +3% for Serbia.

Which has more open access research, Bulgaria or Serbia?

59% of Serbia's research is free to read, against 44% of Bulgaria's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Bulgaria or Serbia?

Bulgaria holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Serbia 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%.

Bulgaria

  1. 1Bulgarian Academy of Sciences5.0% top 10% · 8.8k works
  2. 2College of Tourism8.7% top 10% · 779 works
  3. 3Angel Kanchev University of Ruse4.0% top 10% · 1.1k works
  4. 4Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"5.3% top 10% · 2.3k works
  5. 5New Bulgarian University3.6% top 10% · 500 works
  6. 6South-West University "Neofit Rilski"4.9% top 10% · 486 works

Serbia

  1. 1University of Belgrade7.3% top 10% · 14k works
  2. 2Singidunum University11.5% top 10% · 725 works
  3. 3University of Novi Sad7.5% top 10% · 6.6k works
  4. 4Univerzitet Union Nikola Tesla7.6% top 10% · 504 works
  5. 5Gulf University15.9% top 10% · 417 works
  6. 6University of Kragujevac8.7% top 10% · 2.4k 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.

Bulgaria

  1. 1 A. Cimmino #8,111 worldwide 84k citations · 1,049 works
  2. 2 A. Cabrera #11,365 worldwide 33k citations · 472 works
  3. 3 L. Litov #17,576 worldwide 113k citations · 2,193 works
  4. 4 S. Stoykova #20,679 worldwide 47k citations · 461 works
  5. 5 V. Genchev #32,911 worldwide 54k citations · 539 works

Serbia

  1. 1 Dragan Stevan Pamucar #1,015 worldwide 30k citations · 791 works
  2. 2 Mihajlo Jakovljević #2,006 worldwide 151k citations · 290 works
  3. 3 Petar M Seferovic #2,543 worldwide 70k citations · 423 works
  4. 4 Irena Ilić #6,030 worldwide 99k citations · 203 works
  5. 5 Vladimir Šimić #6,734 worldwide 7.5k citations · 346 works