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Costa Rica vs Cuba

On research quality in 2022-now, Costa Rica ranks #84 in the world and Cuba #103, of 189 countries. Costa Rica stands higher in 9 of the 12 fields both publish in, Cuba in 3.

Research profiles alike: 0.90very similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Costa Rica

World rank, 2022-now
#84
#69 all time
Works, 2022-now
12k
fractional
Top-10% rate
5.6%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
70%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Horticulture, Life-span and Life-course Studies, General Social Sciences.

Cuba

World rank, 2022-now
#103
#102 all time
Works, 2022-now
9.1k
fractional
Top-10% rate
5.7%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
41%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Life-span and Life-course Studies, General Social Sciences, Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology.

Who leads, measure by measure?

Costa Rica leads on 7 of 9 measures: research quality, excellence for its fields, output, citations per work, open access, international co-authorship and growth. Cuba leads on none. The two are level on top-10% rate and institutions in the world top 100.

Costa Rica 72 level0 Cuba
  1. #84Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#103
  2. 0.68×Excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.55×
  3. 12kOutputfractional works, 2022-now9.1k
  4. 5.6%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited5.7%
  5. 5.3Citations per workall time, per fractional work3.7
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 70%Open accessof its works free to read, all time41%
  8. 25%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time19%
  9. -12%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change-64%

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?

Costa Rica stands higher in 9 of 12 fields, Cuba in 3. Costa Rica leads most in Medicine (#80 against #123); Cuba leads most in Psychology (#61 against #74). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Costa Rica 93 Cuba
  1. #71Agricultural and Biological Sciences#90
  2. #72Arts and Humanities#86
  3. #78Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#89
  4. #75Business, Management and Accounting#97
  5. #92Computer Science#106
  6. #78Economics, Econometrics and Finance#95
  7. #113Engineering#107
  8. #71Environmental Science#93
  9. #78Health Professions#66
  10. #80Medicine#123
  11. #74Psychology#61
  12. #75Social Sciences#91

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 Costa Rica rankCuba rank Costa Rica top 10%Cuba top 10% Costa Rica worksCuba works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #71 #90 4.9% 4.9% 1.2k 756
Arts and Humanities #72 #86 6.9% 6.0% 659 255
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology #78 #89 5.2% 4.6% 415 285
Business, Management and Accounting #75 #97 6.9% 4.0% 428 447
Computer Science #92 #106 5.2% 4.8% 781 572
Economics, Econometrics and Finance #78 #95 6.1% 6.3% 388 260
Engineering #113 #107 3.4% 4.5% 453 433
Environmental Science #71 #93 5.7% 4.0% 905 515
Health Professions #78 #66 6.2% 14.3% 463 630
Medicine #80 #123 3.9% 3.8% 1.5k 1.7k
Psychology #74 #61 4.9% 6.3% 415 327
Social Sciences #75 #91 6.9% 6.7% 3.1k 2.1k

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.

Costa Rica

▲ 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. Education1,117▲ 4.8×120 topics
  2. Climate Change793▲ 2.2×110 topics
  3. Globalization791▲ 3.0×135 topics
  4. Sustainability722▲ 2.2×109 topics
  5. Innovation614▲ 4.4×66 topics
  6. Epidemiology600◆ 1.12×138 topics
  7. Public Health553▲ 2.8×73 topics
  8. Latin America514▲ 20×23 topics
  9. Educational Technology485▲ 3.1×39 topics
  10. Sustainable Development470▲ 2.2×77 topics
  11. E-Learning466▲ 3.6×20 topics
  12. COVID-19453▲ 2.6×30 topics
  13. Biodiversity426▲ 4.2×33 topics
  14. Knowledge Management412▲ 5.5×32 topics
  15. Pedagogy396▲ 5.9×23 topics
  16. Digital Marketing347▲ 6.7×5 topics
  17. Teacher Training345▲ 4.2×25 topics
  18. Distance Learning342▲ 7.4×12 topics
  19. Health Promotion338▲ 8.0×17 topics
  20. Technology318▲ 4.5×33 topics
  21. Urban Development272▲ 5.8×17 topics
  22. Nutrition272▲ 4.6×18 topics
  23. Social Movements269▲ 6.8×29 topics
  24. Public Policy268▲ 4.2×27 topics
  25. Digital Divide266▲ 7.7×8 topics
  26. Inclusive Education264▲ 5.5×18 topics
  27. Community Participation252▲ 5.3×15 topics
  28. Communication250▲ 5.9×19 topics
  29. ICT247▲ 14×5 topics
  30. Online Education246▲ 9.5×6 topics
  31. Digital Competence246▲ 21×3 topics
  32. Rural Development242▲ 5.2×17 topics
  33. Virtual Teaching242▲ 33×1 topic
  34. Social Responsibility233▲ 7.5×10 topics
  35. Innovation Ecosystems230▲ 17×4 topics
  36. Competitiveness230▲ 22×6 topics
  37. Small and Medium Enterprises228▲ 9.6×7 topics
  38. Informal Learning223▲ 13×6 topics
  39. Teacher Development207▲ 25×2 topics
  40. Student Performance199▲ 14×3 topics

Cuba

▲ 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. Education916▲ 5.2×89 topics
  2. Epidemiology688▲ 1.67×135 topics
  3. Public Health687▲ 4.6×73 topics
  4. Sustainability596▲ 2.4×98 topics
  5. Innovation502▲ 4.7×55 topics
  6. Climate Change468▲ 1.67×106 topics
  7. Globalization466▲ 2.3×106 topics
  8. Competitiveness427▲ 52×7 topics
  9. Health Promotion418▲ 13×17 topics
  10. Sustainable Development409▲ 2.5×73 topics
  11. Educational Technology402▲ 3.3×39 topics
  12. Quality of Life388▲ 2.6×59 topics
  13. Knowledge Management341▲ 5.9×28 topics
  14. Teacher Training336▲ 5.3×23 topics
  15. E-Learning325▲ 3.3×21 topics
  16. Pedagogy310▲ 6.0×23 topics
  17. Risk Assessment296▲ 4.3×24 topics
  18. Digital Marketing281▲ 7.0×5 topics
  19. Health Policy272▲ 17×7 topics
  20. Social Determinants of Health271▲ 12×8 topics
  21. Medical Education264▲ 9.5×14 topics
  22. Gender257▲ 4.6×31 topics
  23. Nutrition251▲ 5.5×18 topics
  24. Small and Medium Enterprises250▲ 14×9 topics
  25. Social Responsibility250▲ 10×9 topics
  26. Distance Learning247▲ 6.9×12 topics
  27. Inclusive Education244▲ 6.5×16 topics
  28. Innovation Ecosystems243▲ 23×3 topics
  29. Decision Making240▲ 8.0×13 topics
  30. Rural Development233▲ 6.5×17 topics
  31. Organizational Performance228▲ 8.5×11 topics
  32. Communication226▲ 6.9×18 topics
  33. Financial Reporting224▲ 18×7 topics
  34. Financial Analysis222▲ 19×3 topics
  35. Economic Impact Evaluation221▲ 120×1 topic
  36. Productivity Indicators221▲ 120×1 topic
  37. Healthcare Access220▲ 7.8×12 topics
  38. Community Health216▲ 13×7 topics
  39. Global Health216▲ 13×9 topics
  40. Healthcare Quality201▲ 19×5 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?

Costa Rica has out-published Cuba every year since 2023, when it overtook it.

still counting2.5k5k7.5kCosta Rica3,351 in 2025Cuba1,961 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%Costa Rica0.057% in 2025Cuba0.033% 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%Costa Rica6.0% in 2025Cuba5.2% 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.

Costa Rica 05 level0 Cuba
  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, Costa Rica or Cuba?

Costa Rica publishes 1.3× as much research as Cuba in 2022-now (12k against 9.1k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Costa Rica or Cuba?

5.7% of Cuba's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 5.6% for Costa Rica.

Is Costa Rica or Cuba growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was -12% against 2018-21 for Costa Rica, and -64% for Cuba.

Which has more open access research, Costa Rica or Cuba?

70% of Costa Rica's research is free to read, against 41% of Cuba's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Costa Rica or Cuba?

Costa Rica holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Cuba 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%.

Costa Rica

  1. 1Universidad de Costa Rica5.5% top 10% · 3.8k works
  2. 2Universidad Independiente5.5% top 10% · 842 works
  3. 3Universidad Nacional5.4% top 10% · 1.1k works
  4. 4Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica4.5% top 10% · 891 works
  5. 5Universidad de Ciencias Medicas3.3% top 10% · 630 works
  6. 6Distance State University5.4% top 10% · 570 works

Cuba

  1. 1University of Havana4.3% top 10% · 1.1k works
  2. 2Universidad Central "Marta Abreu" de las Villas (UCLV)4.8% top 10% · 619 works
  3. 3University of Holguín4.9% top 10% · 478 works
  4. 4Instituto de Información Científica y Tecnológica31.1% top 10% · 315 works
  5. 5Universidad de Oriente4.1% top 10% · 374 works
  6. 6Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de la Habana6.3% top 10% · 452 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.

Costa Rica

  1. 1 Luciano Ciravegna #118,588 worldwide 3.6k citations · 112 works
  2. 2 Juan Robalino #140,153 worldwide 4.1k citations · 83 works
  3. 3 Carolina Porras #144,308 worldwide 7.9k citations · 170 works
  4. 4 Célia A. Harvey #194,862 worldwide 14k citations · 233 works
  5. 5 María A. Maglianesi #245,024 worldwide 1.6k citations · 50 works

Cuba

  1. 1 Arian Abrahantes Quintana #137,417 worldwide 8k citations · 36 works
  2. 2 Juan J. Llibre Rodríguez #235,268 worldwide 9k citations · 236 works
  3. 3 Arturo Escobar #293,267 worldwide 29k citations · 386 works
  4. 4 Esteban Rodríguez Torres #315,225 worldwide 361 citations · 40 works
  5. 5 Pedro Antonio Valdes-Sosa #364,245 worldwide 15k citations · 440 works