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Costa Rica vs Gambia

On research quality in 2022-now, Costa Rica ranks #84 in the world and the Gambia #87, of 189 countries. Costa Rica stands higher in 11 of the 12 fields both publish in, the Gambia in 1.

Research profiles alike: 0.56similar 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.

Gambia

World rank, 2022-now
#87
#77 all time
Works, 2022-now
793
fractional
Top-10% rate
11.2%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
73%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Infectious Diseases, Anthropology.

Who leads, measure by measure?

The Gambia leads on 6 of 9 measures: citation excellence for its fields, top-10% rate, citations per work, open access, international co-authorship and growth. Costa Rica leads on 2 of 9 measures: research quality and output. The two are level on institutions in the world top 100.

Costa Rica 21 level6 Gambia
  1. #84Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#87
  2. 0.68×Citation excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected1.30×
  3. 12kOutputfractional works, 2022-now793
  4. 5.6%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited11.2%
  5. 5.3Citations per workall time, per fractional work25.5
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 70%Open accessof its works free to read, all time73%
  8. 25%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time44%
  9. -12%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, citation excellence and the top-10% rate are explained in the methodology.

Who leads in each field?

Costa Rica stands higher in 11 of 12 fields, Gambia in 1. The Gambia leads most in Medicine (#51 against #80). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Costa Rica 111 Gambia
  1. #71Agricultural and Biological Sciences-
  2. #72Arts and Humanities-
  3. #78Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology-
  4. #75Business, Management and Accounting-
  5. #92Computer Science-
  6. #78Economics, Econometrics and Finance-
  7. #113Engineering-
  8. #71Environmental Science-
  9. #78Health Professions-
  10. #80Medicine#51
  11. #74Psychology-
  12. #75Social Sciences-

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 rankGambia rank Costa Rica top 10%Gambia top 10% Costa Rica worksGambia works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #71 - 4.9% - 1.2k -
Arts and Humanities #72 - 6.9% - 659 -
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology #78 - 5.2% - 415 -
Business, Management and Accounting #75 - 6.9% - 428 -
Computer Science #92 - 5.2% - 781 -
Economics, Econometrics and Finance #78 - 6.1% - 388 -
Engineering #113 - 3.4% - 453 -
Environmental Science #71 - 5.7% - 905 -
Health Professions #78 - 6.2% - 463 -
Medicine #80 #51 3.9% 13.4% 1.5k 260
Psychology #74 - 4.9% - 415 -
Social Sciences #75 - 6.9% - 3.1k -

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

Gambia

▲ 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. Epidemiology113▲ 2.9×97 topics
  2. Climate Change50▲ 1.84×62 topics
  3. Sustainability33▲ 1.35×49 topics
  4. Globalization32▲ 1.66×41 topics
  5. Economic Growth32▲ 4.0×19 topics
  6. Global Burden32▲ 5.8×12 topics
  7. Immune Response31▲ 5.4×17 topics
  8. Public Health30▲ 2.1×41 topics
  9. Vaccine29▲ 7.4×11 topics
  10. COVID-1928▲ 2.2×21 topics
  11. Vaccine Development28▲ 11×9 topics
  12. Maternal Mortality25▲ 11×5 topics
  13. Cardiovascular Disease24▲ 2.1×28 topics
  14. Pathogenesis23▲ 4.5×20 topics
  15. Infectious Diseases22▲ 6.8×9 topics
  16. Child Development19▲ 4.7×7 topics
  17. Community Health Workers19▲ 22×2 topics
  18. Vulnerability19▲ 8.2×6 topics
  19. Health Inequalities19▲ 16×3 topics
  20. Socio-economic Factors18▲ 17×2 topics
  21. Child Mortality18▲ 25×1 topic
  22. Health Systems18▲ 25×1 topic
  23. Social Capital18▲ 3.4×12 topics
  24. Global Burden of Disease16▲ 6.7×4 topics
  25. Insecticide Resistance16▲ 20×4 topics
  26. Risk Management16▲ 3.4×8 topics
  27. Adaptation15▲ 5.1×7 topics
  28. Global Warming15▲ 3.5×9 topics
  29. Poverty Reduction15▲ 11×4 topics
  30. Governance14▲ 4.4×8 topics
  31. Risk Perception14▲ 5.3×6 topics
  32. Genome Sequence14▲ 17×3 topics
  33. Development14▲ 3.9×14 topics
  34. Maternal and Child Undernutrition13▲ 17×1 topic
  35. Water Sanitation Hygiene13▲ 17×1 topic
  36. Artemisinin Resistance13▲ 41×1 topic
  37. Plasmodium falciparum13▲ 41×1 topic
  38. Global Health12▲ 7.6×5 topics
  39. Respiratory Infections12▲ 10×3 topics
  40. Infertility10▲ 7.3×4 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?

Costa Rica has out-published the Gambia every year since 1980.

still counting2k4kCosta Rica3,351 in 2025Gambia246 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 counting0.050%0.10%Costa Rica0.057% in 2025Gambia0.0042% 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%30%Gambia11.5% in 2025Costa Rica6.0% 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 Gambia
  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 Gambia?

Costa Rica publishes 14.6× as much research as the Gambia in 2022-now (12k against 793 fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Costa Rica or Gambia?

11.2% of the Gambia's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 5.6% for Costa Rica.

Is Costa Rica or Gambia growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +58% against 2018-21 for the Gambia, and -12% for Costa Rica.

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

73% of the Gambia's research is free to read, against 70% of Costa Rica's.

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

Costa Rica holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and the Gambia 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

Gambia

  1. 1University of the Gambia11.0% top 10% · 341 works
  2. 2Euclid University9.8% top 10% · 76 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

Gambia

  1. 1 Amadou Barrow #15,664 worldwide 47k citations · 170 works
  2. 2 Kris A. Murray #30,005 worldwide 21k citations · 210 works
  3. 3 Kalifa Bojang #75,209 worldwide 13k citations · 189 works
  4. 4 Sophie E. Moore #84,737 worldwide 16k citations · 416 works
  5. 5 Martín Antonio #89,709 worldwide 24k citations · 365 works