Science Explorer Back to mapMap
Compare · Countries

Ghana vs Sierra Leone

On research quality in 2022-now, Ghana ranks #58 in the world and Sierra Leone #112, of 189 countries. Ghana stands higher in 19 of the 19 fields both publish in, Sierra Leone in 0.

Research profiles alike: 0.95very similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

Compare other countries
vs

Ghana

World rank, 2022-now
#58
#68 all time
Works, 2022-now
27k
fractional
Top-10% rate
10.8%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
65%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Library and Information Sciences, Horticulture, Research and Theory.

Sierra Leone

World rank, 2022-now
#112
#98 all time
Works, 2022-now
1.1k
fractional
Top-10% rate
6.6%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
68%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Horticulture, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Development.

Who leads, measure by measure?

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

Ghana 51 level3 Sierra Leone
  1. #58Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#112
  2. 1.00×Excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.93×
  3. 27kOutputfractional works, 2022-now1.1k
  4. 10.8%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited6.6%
  5. 12.1Citations per workall time, per fractional work8.9
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 65%Open accessof its works free to read, all time68%
  8. 33%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time39%
  9. +42%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+104%

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?

Ghana stands higher in 19 of 19 fields, Sierra Leone in 0. Ghana leads most in Social Sciences (#59 against #107). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

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 Ghana rankSierra Leone rank Ghana top 10%Sierra Leone top 10% Ghana worksSierra Leone works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #43 - 11.0% - 2.3k -
Arts and Humanities #55 - 11.5% - 746 -
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology #61 - 9.3% - 637 -
Business, Management and Accounting #46 - 12.9% - 2.3k -
Computer Science #62 - 10.8% - 1.4k -
Decision Sciences #45 - 9.5% - 458 -
Earth and Planetary Sciences #58 - 11.4% - 207 -
Economics, Econometrics and Finance #41 - 13.1% - 1.6k -
Energy #57 - 9.8% - 235 -
Engineering #72 - 8.0% - 1.7k -
Environmental Science #52 - 9.1% - 1.9k -
Health Professions #42 - 13.2% - 1.1k -
Immunology and Microbiology #40 - 12.1% - 295 -
Materials Science #70 - 7.5% - 206 -
Mathematics #60 - 11.1% - 277 -
Medicine #58 #99 10.1% 8.7% 4.3k 209
Nursing #40 - 11.6% - 396 -
Psychology #58 - 8.7% - 1k -
Social Sciences #59 #107 11.6% 5.1% 5k 209

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.

Ghana

▲ 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. Epidemiology1,614▲ 1.30×136 topics
  2. Sustainability1,476▲ 1.93×109 topics
  3. Climate Change1,179▲ 1.39×111 topics
  4. Globalization1,054▲ 1.72×132 topics
  5. Environmental Impact932▲ 1.75×67 topics
  6. Renewable Energy815▲ 1.80×53 topics
  7. Sustainable Development808▲ 1.65×89 topics
  8. Education786▲ 1.46×101 topics
  9. Economic Growth786▲ 3.1×34 topics
  10. Social Capital700▲ 4.3×21 topics
  11. Public Health690▲ 1.52×65 topics
  12. Mental Health661▲ 1.48×43 topics
  13. Risk Management650▲ 4.4×18 topics
  14. Supply Chain Management597▲ 2.1×26 topics
  15. Maternal Mortality544▲ 7.8×5 topics
  16. Corporate Governance529▲ 2.3×27 topics
  17. Poverty Reduction517▲ 13×7 topics
  18. Consumer Behavior514▲ 2.6×18 topics
  19. Community Health Workers479▲ 17×2 topics
  20. Biodiversity Conservation456▲ 3.9×17 topics
  21. Health Inequalities456▲ 12×5 topics
  22. Urbanization456▲ 3.6×13 topics
  23. Child Development449▲ 3.5×8 topics
  24. Leadership447▲ 2.9×35 topics
  25. Socio-economic Factors435▲ 12×3 topics
  26. Child Mortality432▲ 19×1 topic
  27. Health Systems432▲ 19×1 topic
  28. Smallholder Farmers429▲ 6.5×6 topics
  29. Social Networks417▲ 4.9×13 topics
  30. Governance412▲ 4.0×15 topics
  31. Development397▲ 3.6×19 topics
  32. Sustainable Agriculture395▲ 4.1×15 topics
  33. Gender Inequality381▲ 8.8×6 topics
  34. Global Burden of Disease372▲ 4.8×4 topics
  35. Poverty Alleviation372▲ 12×3 topics
  36. Vulnerability370▲ 5.1×8 topics
  37. ICT305▲ 7.3×5 topics
  38. Maternal and Child Undernutrition305▲ 12×1 topic
  39. Water Sanitation Hygiene305▲ 12×1 topic
  40. Institutional Quality302▲ 9.2×3 topics

Sierra Leone

▲ 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. Epidemiology78▲ 1.48×79 topics
  2. Economic Growth68▲ 6.3×21 topics
  3. Climate Change66▲ 1.86×62 topics
  4. Globalization59▲ 2.3×48 topics
  5. Sustainability56▲ 1.76×50 topics
  6. Public Health45▲ 2.4×40 topics
  7. Environmental Impact41▲ 1.83×44 topics
  8. Fiscal Policy40▲ 15×6 topics
  9. Vaccine38▲ 7.3×10 topics
  10. Maternal Mortality37▲ 13×5 topics
  11. Governance36▲ 8.5×9 topics
  12. Pathogenesis36▲ 5.4×18 topics
  13. Immune Response36▲ 4.8×12 topics
  14. Community Health Workers35▲ 30×2 topics
  15. Health Inequalities34▲ 21×3 topics
  16. Poverty Reduction33▲ 19×5 topics
  17. Child Mortality32▲ 34×1 topic
  18. Health Systems32▲ 34×1 topic
  19. Institutional Quality31▲ 23×2 topics
  20. Economic Development30▲ 2.9×20 topics
  21. Risk Management30▲ 4.8×10 topics
  22. Infectious Diseases28▲ 6.4×8 topics
  23. Smallholder Farmers28▲ 10×5 topics
  24. Genetic Diversity27▲ 4.7×17 topics
  25. Regulation26▲ 3.8×11 topics
  26. Transmission26▲ 36×3 topics
  27. Outbreak24▲ 49×2 topics
  28. Adaptation24▲ 6.2×7 topics
  29. Ebola Virus24▲ 65×1 topic
  30. Reservoirs24▲ 65×1 topic
  31. ICT22▲ 13×3 topics
  32. Corruption22▲ 11×6 topics
  33. Gender Equality21▲ 5.8×11 topics
  34. Global Burden of Disease21▲ 6.4×4 topics
  35. Monetary Policy21▲ 6.6×7 topics
  36. Inequality20▲ 6.8×5 topics
  37. Global Health20▲ 9.6×4 topics
  38. Finance20▲ 8.1×3 topics
  39. Inclusive Development19▲ 33×2 topics
  40. Knowledge Economy18▲ 13×2 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?

Ghana has out-published Sierra Leone every year since 1980.

still counting2.5k5k7.5kGhana7,317 in 2025Sierra Leone311 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%0.15%Ghana0.12% in 2025Sierra Leone0.0053% 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%Ghana11.1% in 2025Sierra Leone8.3% 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.

Ghana 05 level0 Sierra Leone
  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, Ghana or Sierra Leone?

Ghana publishes 24.3× as much research as Sierra Leone in 2022-now (27k against 1.1k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Ghana or Sierra Leone?

10.8% of Ghana's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 6.6% for Sierra Leone.

Is Ghana or Sierra Leone growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +104% against 2018-21 for Sierra Leone, and +42% for Ghana.

Which has more open access research, Ghana or Sierra Leone?

68% of Sierra Leone's research is free to read, against 65% of Ghana's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Ghana or Sierra Leone?

Ghana holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Sierra Leone 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%.

Ghana

  1. 1University of Ghana11.0% top 10% · 5.3k works
  2. 2University of Cape Coast12.8% top 10% · 2.8k works
  3. 3Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology10.8% top 10% · 4.5k works
  4. 4University for Development Studies11.1% top 10% · 1.9k works
  5. 5University of Education, Winneba8.0% top 10% · 1.4k works
  6. 6Takoradi Technical University13.8% top 10% · 404 works

Sierra Leone

  1. 1University of Sierra Leone5.1% top 10% · 501 works
  2. 2Njala University6.9% top 10% · 307 works
  3. 3University of Makeni5.7% top 10% · 66 works
  4. 4Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute7.9% top 10% · 73 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.

Ghana

  1. 1 Richard Gyan Aboagye #22,347 worldwide 39k citations · 250 works
  2. 2 Emmanuel Joel Aikins Abakah #27,882 worldwide 4.7k citations · 132 works
  3. 3 Martin Amogre Ayanore #33,207 worldwide 54k citations · 181 works
  4. 4 Robert Kokou Dowou #33,244 worldwide 25k citations · 109 works
  5. 5 Hubert Amu #37,771 worldwide 49k citations · 190 works

Sierra Leone

  1. 1 Haja Ramatulai Wurie #161,092 worldwide 2.4k citations · 68 works
  2. 2 Amara Jambai #176,221 worldwide 3.4k citations · 97 works
  3. 3 Rashid Ansumana #239,551 worldwide 4.4k citations · 163 works
  4. 4 Abdul Salami Bah #270,549 worldwide 111 citations · 29 works
  5. 5 Augustus Osborne #296,042 worldwide 4k citations · 162 works