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Italy vs South Korea

On research quality in 2022-now, Italy ranks #11 in the world and South Korea #14, of 189 countries. Italy stands higher in 17 of the 26 fields both publish in, South Korea in 9.

Research profiles alike: 0.02different shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Italy

World rank, 2022-now
#11
#13 all time
Works, 2022-now
479k
fractional
Top-10% rate
12.8%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
43%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Industrial relations, General Arts and Humanities, Space and Planetary Science.

South Korea

World rank, 2022-now
#14
#15 all time
Works, 2022-now
358k
fractional
Top-10% rate
10.5%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
43%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Leadership and Management, Polymers and Plastics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Who leads, measure by measure?

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

Italy 72 level0 South Korea
  1. #11Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#14
  2. 1.29×Citation excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.94×
  3. 479kOutputfractional works, 2022-now358k
  4. 12.8%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited10.5%
  5. 22.5Citations per workall time, per fractional work18.2
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 43%Open accessof its works free to read, all time43%
  8. 23%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time17%
  9. +10%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+7%

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?

Italy stands higher in 17 of 26 fields, South Korea in 9. Italy leads most in Veterinary (#12 against #20); South Korea leads most in Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics (#5 against #14). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Italy 179 South Korea
  1. #11Agricultural and Biological Sciences#15
  2. #12Arts and Humanities#24
  3. #16Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#18
  4. #9Business, Management and Accounting#13
  5. #19Chemical Engineering#14
  6. #16Chemistry#10
  7. #11Computer Science#7
  8. #13Decision Sciences#12
  9. #7Dentistry#13
  10. #11Earth and Planetary Sciences#16
  11. #11Economics, Econometrics and Finance#15
  12. #12Energy#3
  13. #12Engineering#7
  14. #12Environmental Science#16
  15. #12Health Professions#14
  16. #11Immunology and Microbiology#19
  17. #16Materials Science#7
  18. #6Mathematics#8
  19. #13Medicine#14
  20. #10Neuroscience#11
  21. #12Nursing#6
  22. #14Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics#5
  23. #7Physics and Astronomy#16
  24. #13Psychology#19
  25. #14Social Sciences#23
  26. #12Veterinary#20

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 Italy rankSouth Korea rank Italy top 10%South Korea top 10% Italy worksSouth Korea works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #11 #15 15.7% 9.8% 17k 13k
Arts and Humanities #12 #24 10.2% 13.8% 19k 2.6k
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology #16 #18 11.8% 9.4% 29k 25k
Business, Management and Accounting #9 #13 16.7% 14.2% 12k 5.5k
Chemical Engineering #19 #14 8.6% 10.9% 1.5k 2.1k
Chemistry #16 #10 9.8% 10.3% 5.7k 5.3k
Computer Science #11 #7 11.2% 12.0% 30k 30k
Decision Sciences #13 #12 12.7% 14.1% 3.8k 2.5k
Dentistry #7 #13 21.7% 11.8% 2.6k 2.3k
Earth and Planetary Sciences #11 #16 11.0% 8.0% 10k 4.2k
Economics, Econometrics and Finance #11 #15 12.5% 10.1% 11k 4.2k
Energy #12 #3 10.0% 9.4% 2.9k 4.8k
Engineering #12 #7 10.2% 10.6% 67k 78k
Environmental Science #12 #16 11.2% 9.3% 23k 15k
Health Professions #12 #14 15.6% 12.4% 8.1k 6.2k
Immunology and Microbiology #11 #19 12.9% 8.8% 5.3k 4k
Materials Science #16 #7 8.6% 10.0% 11k 22k
Mathematics #6 #8 12.1% 11.0% 7.2k 3.2k
Medicine #13 #14 15.4% 10.2% 129k 87k
Neuroscience #10 #11 12.5% 10.7% 11k 7.6k
Nursing #12 #6 15.2% 11.6% 2.1k 2.7k
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics #14 #5 13.6% 10.2% 1.2k 1.7k
Physics and Astronomy #7 #16 10.5% 9.0% 18k 7.6k
Psychology #13 #19 14.7% 11.1% 14k 7.8k
Social Sciences #14 #23 11.9% 12.2% 37k 15k
Veterinary #12 #20 15.3% 9.3% 912 483

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.

Italy

▲ 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. Epidemiology27k▲ 1.22×140 topics
  2. Climate Change16k◆ 1.11×132 topics
  3. Machine Learning15k▼ 0.82×97 topics
  4. Deep Learning15k▼ 0.77×85 topics
  5. Inflammation14k▲ 1.25×83 topics
  6. Sustainability13k◆ 1.00×140 topics
  7. Treatment9,894▲ 1.49×52 topics
  8. Oxidative Stress9,864◆ 1.10×63 topics
  9. Environmental Impact9,329◆ 1.00×74 topics
  10. Quality of Life9,189▲ 1.17×61 topics
  11. Globalization8,884▼ 0.83×186 topics
  12. Cultural Heritage8,644▲ 3.0×40 topics
  13. Cardiovascular Disease7,916▲ 1.27×39 topics
  14. Diagnosis7,824▲ 1.54×41 topics
  15. Cancer7,806◆ 1.07×59 topics
  16. Remote Sensing7,239◆ 1.09×42 topics
  17. Immunotherapy6,484▲ 1.65×19 topics
  18. Chemotherapy6,439▲ 1.67×25 topics
  19. Risk Factors6,280◆ 1.05×37 topics
  20. Neural Networks6,165▼ 0.73×42 topics
  21. Public Health6,139▼ 0.77×77 topics
  22. Innovation5,919◆ 1.05×90 topics
  23. Genetics5,915▲ 1.54×27 topics
  24. Management5,743▲ 1.32×40 topics
  25. Metabolic Syndrome5,706▲ 1.29×24 topics
  26. Identity5,391▲ 1.37×80 topics
  27. Clinical Trials5,280▲ 1.45×19 topics
  28. Biomarkers5,232▲ 1.38×18 topics
  29. Obesity5,218▲ 1.24×29 topics
  30. Neurological Disorders5,214▲ 1.68×20 topics
  31. Genetic Mutations4,983▲ 2.1×23 topics
  32. Clinical Practice Guidelines4,902▲ 1.64×14 topics
  33. Heart Failure4,469▲ 1.84×14 topics
  34. Prognostic Factors4,419▲ 1.87×14 topics
  35. Guidelines4,360▲ 1.70×13 topics
  36. Literature4,118▲ 1.38×64 topics
  37. Complications4,115▲ 1.52×17 topics
  38. Echocardiography3,514▲ 2.3×8 topics
  39. Urban Planning2,099▲ 4.5×15 topics
  40. Italy1,777▲ 13×2 topics

South Korea

▲ 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. Deep Learning19k▲ 1.34×85 topics
  2. Epidemiology17k◆ 1.08×140 topics
  3. Inflammation13k▲ 1.46×83 topics
  4. Machine Learning13k◆ 0.93×97 topics
  5. Neural Networks9,068▲ 1.45×42 topics
  6. Oxidative Stress8,834▲ 1.33×63 topics
  7. Biomedical Applications8,345▲ 1.74×36 topics
  8. Nanomaterials8,320▲ 1.96×21 topics
  9. Cancer7,324▲ 1.34×59 topics
  10. Climate Change7,116▼ 0.65×131 topics
  11. Nanoparticles6,924▲ 1.36×44 topics
  12. Quality of Life6,876▲ 1.18×60 topics
  13. Energy Storage6,776▲ 2.6×13 topics
  14. Cardiovascular Disease6,255▲ 1.35×39 topics
  15. Nanocomposites5,958▲ 1.86×22 topics
  16. Environmental Impact5,782▼ 0.84×74 topics
  17. Graphene5,561▲ 2.0×12 topics
  18. Treatment5,456◆ 1.11×52 topics
  19. Cathode Materials5,347▲ 3.4×3 topics
  20. Tissue Engineering4,826▲ 1.96×13 topics
  21. Mechanical Properties4,572◆ 1.15×39 topics
  22. Energy Efficiency4,508▲ 1.20×46 topics
  23. Convolutional Neural Networks4,412▲ 1.50×14 topics
  24. Lithium-ion Batteries4,326▲ 2.6×4 topics
  25. Chemotherapy4,259▲ 1.48×25 topics
  26. Metabolic Syndrome4,209▲ 1.28×24 topics
  27. Metal-Organic Frameworks3,979▲ 2.4×6 topics
  28. Rechargeable Batteries3,606▲ 3.4×2 topics
  29. Biosensors3,421▲ 1.72×12 topics
  30. Nanostructures3,336▲ 2.0×17 topics
  31. Water Splitting3,319▲ 2.2×4 topics
  32. Semiconductors3,103▲ 2.6×6 topics
  33. Flexible Electronics2,974▲ 4.3×3 topics
  34. Nanocrystals2,774▲ 2.6×5 topics
  35. Self-Efficacy2,756▲ 2.6×11 topics
  36. Solar Cells2,495▲ 3.0×7 topics
  37. Energy Harvesting2,420▲ 3.3×3 topics
  38. Battery Materials2,322▲ 3.5×1 topic
  39. Nanostructured Anodes2,322▲ 3.5×1 topic
  40. Neuromorphic Computing2,178▲ 4.7×2 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?

Italy has out-published South Korea every year since 1980.

still counting50k100k150kItaly124k in 2025South Korea93k 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 counting2.0%4.0%Italy2.1% in 2025South Korea1.6% 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%Italy12.9% in 2025South Korea11.0% 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.

Italy 32 level0 South Korea
  1. 0In the world top 500
  2. 0In the top 1000
  3. 14In the top 5009
  4. 38In the top 1,00022
  5. #9Elite capacityrank among 204 countries#12

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, Italy or South Korea?

Italy publishes 1.3× as much research as South Korea in 2022-now (479k against 358k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Italy or South Korea?

12.8% of Italy's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 10.5% for South Korea.

Is Italy or South Korea growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +10% against 2018-21 for Italy, and +7% for South Korea.

Which has more open access research, Italy or South Korea?

43% of South Korea's research is free to read, against 43% of Italy's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Italy or South Korea?

Italy holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and South Korea 0; in the top 1,000 it is 38 against 22.

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%.

Italy

  1. 1University of Padua13.0% top 10% · 17k works
  2. 2Sapienza University of Rome12.5% top 10% · 24k works
  3. 3University of Bologna12.5% top 10% · 17k works
  4. 4National Research Council12.6% top 10% · 19k works
  5. 5University of Naples Federico II14.3% top 10% · 15k works
  6. 6University of Turin12.9% top 10% · 11k works

South Korea

  1. 1Seoul National University11.1% top 10% · 24k works
  2. 2Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology14.1% top 10% · 9.8k works
  3. 3Yonsei University12.4% top 10% · 19k works
  4. 4Sungkyunkwan University12.0% top 10% · 14k works
  5. 5Korea University13.0% top 10% · 12k works
  6. 6Pohang University of Science and Technology13.4% top 10% · 4.4k 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.

Italy

  1. 1 M. Razzano #143 worldwide 134k citations · 578 works
  2. 2 Stefano Carniani #211 worldwide 17k citations · 427 works
  3. 3 F. Pannarale #213 worldwide 85k citations · 265 works
  4. 4 M. Pesce-Rollins #346 worldwide 55k citations · 464 works
  5. 5 Nicola Segata #448 worldwide 122k citations · 539 works

South Korea

  1. 1 Jaephil Cho #242 worldwide 73k citations · 550 works
  2. 2 Taeghwan Hyeon #270 worldwide 112k citations · 685 works
  3. 3 Yang‐Kook Sun #542 worldwide 98k citations · 1,172 works
  4. 4 Kisuk Kang #565 worldwide 55k citations · 492 works
  5. 5 Dae‐Hyeong Kim #606 worldwide 55k citations · 311 works

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