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Costa Rica vs Panama

On research quality in 2022-now, Panama ranks #67 in the world and Costa Rica #84, of 189 countries. Costa Rica stands higher in 1 of the 12 fields both publish in, Panama in 11.

Research profiles alike: 0.89very 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.

Panama

World rank, 2022-now
#67
#65 all time
Works, 2022-now
6.5k
fractional
Top-10% rate
6.7%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
72%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology, Life-span and Life-course Studies, Computer Science Applications.

Who leads, measure by measure?

Panama leads on 6 of 9 measures: research quality, citation excellence for its fields, top-10% rate, citations per work, international co-authorship and growth. Costa Rica leads on 1 of 9 measures: output. The two are level on institutions in the world top 100 and open access.

Costa Rica 12 level6 Panama
  1. #84Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#67
  2. 0.68×Citation excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.82×
  3. 12kOutputfractional works, 2022-now6.5k
  4. 5.6%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited6.7%
  5. 5.3Citations per workall time, per fractional work13.9
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 70%Open accessof its works free to read, all time72%
  8. 25%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time26%
  9. -12%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+92%

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 1 of 12 fields, Panama in 11. Panama leads most in Engineering (#76 against #113). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Costa Rica 111 Panama
  1. #71Agricultural and Biological Sciences#61
  2. #72Arts and Humanities-
  3. #78Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#59
  4. #75Business, Management and Accounting#73
  5. #92Computer Science#82
  6. #78Economics, Econometrics and Finance#67
  7. #113Engineering#76
  8. #71Environmental Science#53
  9. #78Health Professions#56
  10. #80Medicine#64
  11. #74Psychology#69
  12. #75Social Sciences#56

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 rankPanama rank Costa Rica top 10%Panama top 10% Costa Rica worksPanama works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #71 #61 4.9% 6.5% 1.2k 526
Arts and Humanities #72 - 6.9% - 659 -
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology #78 #59 5.2% 7.0% 415 217
Business, Management and Accounting #75 #73 6.9% 5.4% 428 358
Computer Science #92 #82 5.2% 6.7% 781 589
Economics, Econometrics and Finance #78 #67 6.1% 5.9% 388 271
Engineering #113 #76 3.4% 4.6% 453 234
Environmental Science #71 #53 5.7% 7.6% 905 509
Health Professions #78 #56 6.2% 4.9% 463 288
Medicine #80 #64 3.9% 4.3% 1.5k 895
Psychology #74 #69 4.9% 6.7% 415 258
Social Sciences #75 #56 6.9% 8.6% 3.1k 1.8k

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

Panama

▲ 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. Education1,073▲ 8.1×78 topics
  2. Innovation593▲ 7.4×42 topics
  3. E-Learning508▲ 6.8×17 topics
  4. Educational Technology483▲ 5.3×36 topics
  5. Climate Change475▲ 2.2×100 topics
  6. Sustainability460▲ 2.4×91 topics
  7. Pedagogy438▲ 11×17 topics
  8. Competitiveness414▲ 67×6 topics
  9. COVID-19402▲ 4.0×28 topics
  10. Teacher Training400▲ 8.4×20 topics
  11. Globalization397▲ 2.6×85 topics
  12. Digital Marketing392▲ 13×6 topics
  13. Distance Learning361▲ 13×10 topics
  14. Knowledge Management357▲ 8.3×22 topics
  15. Small and Medium Enterprises329▲ 24×8 topics
  16. Social Responsibility329▲ 18×10 topics
  17. Digital Divide311▲ 16×8 topics
  18. Digital Competence308▲ 45×3 topics
  19. Online Education307▲ 20×4 topics
  20. ICT306▲ 29×4 topics
  21. Virtual Teaching304▲ 73×1 topic
  22. Innovation Ecosystems277▲ 35×2 topics
  23. Inclusive Education275▲ 9.8×15 topics
  24. Urban Development271▲ 9.9×15 topics
  25. Economic Impact269▲ 6.5×9 topics
  26. Globalization Effects252▲ 47×2 topics
  27. Tourism Management252▲ 47×2 topics
  28. City Branding250▲ 52×1 topic
  29. Psychopharmacology Education250▲ 52×1 topic
  30. Technology250▲ 6.2×20 topics
  31. Social Impact239▲ 7.9×14 topics
  32. Communication228▲ 9.3×16 topics
  33. Teacher Development221▲ 46×2 topics
  34. Educational Leadership218▲ 22×4 topics
  35. Student Performance216▲ 26×4 topics
  36. Organizational Commitment216▲ 14×5 topics
  37. Curriculum Design216▲ 40×2 topics
  38. Quality Education214▲ 77×1 topic
  39. School Culture214▲ 77×1 topic
  40. Informal Learning212▲ 21×5 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 Panama every year since 1980.

still counting2k4kCosta Rica3,351 in 2025Panama2,375 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 2025Panama0.040% 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%15%Panama6.9% 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 Panama
  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 Panama?

Costa Rica publishes 1.8× as much research as Panama in 2022-now (12k against 6.5k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Costa Rica or Panama?

6.7% of Panama's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 5.6% for Costa Rica.

Is Costa Rica or Panama growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +92% against 2018-21 for Panama, and -12% for Costa Rica.

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

72% of Panama's research is free to read, against 70% of Costa Rica's.

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

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

Panama

  1. 1Universidad de Panamá5.7% top 10% · 2.2k works
  2. 2Universidad Metropolitana de Educación, Ciencia y Tecnología9.4% top 10% · 1.2k works
  3. 3Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá5.0% top 10% · 451 works
  4. 4Universidad de Santander4.6% top 10% · 232 works
  5. 5Quality Leadership University Panama6.1% top 10% · 210 works
  6. 6Hospital del Niño4.4% top 10% · 245 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

Panama

  1. 1 Stephen P. Hubbell #1,469 worldwide 56k citations · 353 works
  2. 2 S. Joseph Wright‬ #4,590 worldwide 58k citations · 585 works
  3. 3 Dolores R. Piperno #5,646 worldwide 16k citations · 174 works
  4. 4 Helene C. Muller‐Landau #10,654 worldwide 29k citations · 271 works
  5. 5 Richard Condit #11,184 worldwide 27k citations · 257 works