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El Salvador vs Guatemala

On research quality in 2022-now, El Salvador ranks #114 in the world and Guatemala #117, of 189 countries. El Salvador stands higher in 1 of the 5 fields both publish in, Guatemala in 4.

Research profiles alike: 0.71very similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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El Salvador

World rank, 2022-now
#114
#106 all time
Works, 2022-now
2.7k
fractional
Top-10% rate
4.1%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
82%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: General Social Sciences, Horticulture, Computer Science Applications.

Guatemala

World rank, 2022-now
#117
#113 all time
Works, 2022-now
3.8k
fractional
Top-10% rate
4.9%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
65%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology, Computer Science Applications, General Social Sciences.

Who leads, measure by measure?

Guatemala leads on 5 of 9 measures: output, top-10% rate, citations per work, international co-authorship and growth. El Salvador leads on 3 of 9 measures: research quality, citation excellence for its fields and open access. The two are level on institutions in the world top 100.

El Salvador 31 level5 Guatemala
  1. #114Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#117
  2. 0.68×Citation excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.56×
  3. 2.7kOutputfractional works, 2022-now3.8k
  4. 4.1%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited4.9%
  5. 2.2Citations per workall time, per fractional work7.4
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 82%Open accessof its works free to read, all time65%
  8. 18%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time36%
  9. +32%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+38%

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?

El Salvador stands higher in 1 of 5 fields, Guatemala in 4. Guatemala leads most in Medicine (#92 against #113); El Salvador leads most in Computer Science (#103 against #107). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

El Salvador 14 Guatemala
  1. -Agricultural and Biological Sciences#109
  2. #103Computer Science#107
  3. -Health Professions#68
  4. #113Medicine#92
  5. #90Social Sciences#82

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 El Salvador rankGuatemala rank El Salvador top 10%Guatemala top 10% El Salvador worksGuatemala works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences - #109 - 4.9% - 202
Computer Science #103 #107 4.9% 5.3% 217 308
Health Professions - #68 - 5.2% - 207
Medicine #113 #92 4.4% 3.5% 273 977
Social Sciences #90 #82 3.9% 6.3% 943 937

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.

El Salvador

▲ 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. Education344▲ 6.7×78 topics
  2. Globalization222▲ 3.8×97 topics
  3. Latin America187▲ 33×21 topics
  4. Sustainability186▲ 2.5×84 topics
  5. Public Health184▲ 4.2×56 topics
  6. Innovation170▲ 5.5×44 topics
  7. Climate Change163▲ 2.0×78 topics
  8. Sustainable Development153▲ 3.3×48 topics
  9. Human Rights145▲ 4.7×44 topics
  10. E-Learning117▲ 4.1×14 topics
  11. Digital Marketing116▲ 10×4 topics
  12. Public Policy110▲ 7.8×19 topics
  13. COVID-19108▲ 2.8×26 topics
  14. Knowledge Management103▲ 6.2×20 topics
  15. Healthcare Access103▲ 13×12 topics
  16. Social Movements102▲ 12×21 topics
  17. Ethics100▲ 6.7×33 topics
  18. Health Promotion100▲ 11×14 topics
  19. Pedagogy94▲ 6.3×15 topics
  20. Small and Medium Enterprises93▲ 18×6 topics
  21. Technology89▲ 5.7×21 topics
  22. Teacher Training88▲ 4.8×19 topics
  23. Urban Development86▲ 8.2×13 topics
  24. Democracy86▲ 8.2×15 topics
  25. Environmental Management85▲ 7.0×11 topics
  26. Social Responsibility84▲ 12×9 topics
  27. Water Quality84▲ 7.0×13 topics
  28. Economic Impact82▲ 5.2×8 topics
  29. Distance Learning82▲ 7.9×10 topics
  30. Inclusive Education80▲ 7.5×14 topics
  31. Innovation Ecosystems80▲ 26×3 topics
  32. Healthcare Policy75▲ 28×3 topics
  33. Epidemiological Analysis74▲ 41×3 topics
  34. Chronic Disease Control74▲ 129×1 topic
  35. Community-based Resource Management74▲ 129×1 topic
  36. Psychopharmacology Education73▲ 40×1 topic
  37. Tourism Management73▲ 35×1 topic
  38. Inequality69▲ 10×14 topics
  39. Digital Divide68▲ 8.9×7 topics
  40. ICT63▲ 16×5 topics

Guatemala

▲ 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. Education407▲ 5.5×81 topics
  2. Epidemiology328▲ 1.91×134 topics
  3. Public Health234▲ 3.7×66 topics
  4. Globalization227▲ 2.7×92 topics
  5. Innovation208▲ 4.7×45 topics
  6. COVID-19205▲ 3.7×28 topics
  7. E-Learning204▲ 4.9×15 topics
  8. Sustainability202▲ 1.91×75 topics
  9. Educational Technology189▲ 3.7×30 topics
  10. Pedagogy175▲ 8.1×19 topics
  11. Climate Change171▲ 1.46×90 topics
  12. Mental Health160▲ 2.6×41 topics
  13. Knowledge Management153▲ 6.4×20 topics
  14. Human Rights149▲ 3.4×48 topics
  15. Distance Learning147▲ 9.8×10 topics
  16. Quality of Life134▲ 2.1×53 topics
  17. Teacher Training126▲ 4.7×19 topics
  18. Latin America124▲ 15×22 topics
  19. Health Promotion122▲ 8.9×15 topics
  20. Digital Divide119▲ 11×6 topics
  21. ICT116▲ 20×3 topics
  22. Online Education116▲ 14×5 topics
  23. Digital Marketing116▲ 6.9×5 topics
  24. Digital Competence115▲ 30×3 topics
  25. Risk Factors115▲ 2.4×36 topics
  26. Technology115▲ 5.1×24 topics
  27. Virtual Teaching115▲ 49×1 topic
  28. Inclusive Education109▲ 7.0×14 topics
  29. Nutrition102▲ 5.4×15 topics
  30. Ethics94▲ 4.3×37 topics
  31. University Students86▲ 36×2 topics
  32. Communication82▲ 6.1×20 topics
  33. Social Impact81▲ 4.8×14 topics
  34. Healthcare Access76▲ 6.5×11 topics
  35. Informal Learning75▲ 14×6 topics
  36. Competitiveness68▲ 20×7 topics
  37. Open Access66▲ 15×4 topics
  38. Innovation Ecosystems66▲ 15×3 topics
  39. Educational Projects65▲ 34×1 topic
  40. Remote Learning65▲ 34×1 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?

Guatemala has out-published El Salvador every year since 2019, when it overtook it.

still counting5001k1.5kGuatemala992 in 2025El Salvador769 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 counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Guatemala0.017% in 2025El Salvador0.013% 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%Guatemala6.1% in 2025El Salvador4.6% 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.

El Salvador 05 level0 Guatemala
  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, El Salvador or Guatemala?

Guatemala publishes 1.4× as much research as El Salvador in 2022-now (3.8k against 2.7k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, El Salvador or Guatemala?

4.9% of Guatemala's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 4.1% for El Salvador.

Is El Salvador or Guatemala growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +38% against 2018-21 for Guatemala, and +32% for El Salvador.

Which has more open access research, El Salvador or Guatemala?

82% of El Salvador's research is free to read, against 65% of Guatemala's.

Which has more world-class institutions, El Salvador or Guatemala?

El Salvador holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Guatemala 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%.

El Salvador

  1. 1Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas3.3% top 10% · 535 works
  2. 2University of El Salvador3.8% top 10% · 535 works
  3. 3Universidad Don Bosco2.3% top 10% · 421 works
  4. 4Universidad de Oriente7.1% top 10% · 144 works
  5. 5Universidad Evangelica de El Salvador4.7% top 10% · 108 works
  6. 6Universidad Católica de El Salvador4.0% top 10% · 88 works

Guatemala

  1. 1Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala3.6% top 10% · 1.6k works
  2. 2Departamento de Epidemiología6.4% top 10% · 370 works
  3. 3Universidad Panamericana5.9% top 10% · 523 works
  4. 4Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología8.0% top 10% · 198 works
  5. 5Universidad del Valle de Guatemala8.1% top 10% · 153 works
  6. 6Universidad Francisco Marroquín3.1% top 10% · 143 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.

El Salvador

  1. 1 Ramón Gárcía-Trabanino #167,667 worldwide 2.7k citations · 54 works
  2. 2 Lourdes Ramírez Dueñas #482,398 worldwide 2.4k citations · 48 works
  3. 3 Soad Fuentes-Alabí #682,410 worldwide 1.6k citations · 46 works
  4. 4 Carlos Orantes #747,932 worldwide 1.2k citations · 34 works
  5. 5 Francisco S. Álvarez #1,078,172 worldwide 1.7k citations · 31 works

Guatemala

  1. 1 Ana Lucia Garces #346,400 worldwide 2k citations · 58 works
  2. 2 John P. McCracken #366,020 worldwide 9.6k citations · 185 works
  3. 3 David Morán #394,186 worldwide 3k citations · 45 works
  4. 4 Byron A. Arana #464,477 worldwide 4.9k citations · 101 works
  5. 5 Maria Fernanda Kroker-Lobos #494,998 worldwide 1.4k citations · 42 works