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Lesotho vs Timor-Leste

On research quality in 2022-now, Timor-Leste ranks #162 in the world and Lesotho #164, of 189 countries. Lesotho stands higher in 0 of the 1 fields both publish in, Timor-Leste in 1.

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

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Lesotho

World rank, 2022-now
#164
#158 all time
Works, 2022-now
516
fractional
Top-10% rate
7.0%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
56%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Archeology, Equine, Linguistics and Language.

Timor-Leste

World rank, 2022-now
#162
#182 all time
Works, 2022-now
673
fractional
Top-10% rate
5.1%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
83%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Linguistics and Language, Law, Human Factors and Ergonomics.

Who leads, measure by measure?

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

Lesotho 31 level5 Timor-Leste
  1. #164Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#162
  2. 0.85×Excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.66×
  3. 516Outputfractional works, 2022-now673
  4. 7.0%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited5.1%
  5. 8.1Citations per workall time, per fractional work2.7
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 56%Open accessof its works free to read, all time83%
  8. 26%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time46%
  9. +52%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+194%

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?

Lesotho stands higher in 0 of 1 fields, Timor-Leste in 1. Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Lesotho 01 Timor-Leste
  1. -Social Sciences#111

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 Lesotho rankTimor-Leste rank Lesotho top 10%Timor-Leste top 10% Lesotho worksTimor-Leste works
Social Sciences - #111 - 6.6% - 258

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.

Lesotho

▲ 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. Globalization35▲ 3.1×43 topics
  2. Human Rights27▲ 4.5×33 topics
  3. Colonialism25▲ 9.1×11 topics
  4. Education23▲ 2.3×29 topics
  5. Mental Health21▲ 2.6×19 topics
  6. Higher Education20▲ 6.5×12 topics
  7. Economic Growth18▲ 3.9×16 topics
  8. Poverty Reduction18▲ 24×5 topics
  9. Nationalism18▲ 6.9×6 topics
  10. Social Justice16▲ 4.5×19 topics
  11. Technology Integration14▲ 7.9×6 topics
  12. Social Capital14▲ 4.7×12 topics
  13. Development14▲ 6.6×13 topics
  14. Teacher Training14▲ 3.8×10 topics
  15. Gender Equality13▲ 8.0×10 topics
  16. Political Economy13▲ 8.6×9 topics
  17. Social Impact12▲ 5.5×6 topics
  18. Gender Inequality12▲ 15×5 topics
  19. Multilingualism12▲ 12×3 topics
  20. Bilingual Education11▲ 17×2 topics
  21. Language Policy11▲ 14×2 topics
  22. Reflective Practice11▲ 10×5 topics
  23. Professional Development11▲ 9.2×8 topics
  24. Teacher Professional Development11▲ 11×4 topics
  25. Student Perceptions11▲ 10×7 topics
  26. Governance10▲ 5.3×8 topics
  27. Conditional Cash Transfers10▲ 48×1 topic
  28. School Subsidies10▲ 48×1 topic
  29. Sociolinguistics10▲ 9.3×3 topics
  30. Lifelong Learning10▲ 7.9×7 topics
  31. South Africa9▲ 56×4 topics
  32. Judicial Review9▲ 18×2 topics
  33. Inequality9▲ 6.6×4 topics
  34. Antiretroviral Therapy8▲ 8.9×6 topics
  35. Environmental Governance8▲ 21×4 topics
  36. Land Reform8▲ 30×2 topics
  37. Equality8▲ 24×4 topics
  38. Legal Research8▲ 12×2 topics
  39. Consumer Protection8▲ 31×2 topics
  40. Public Participation8▲ 61×2 topics

Timor-Leste

▲ 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. Globalization46▲ 3.0×53 topics
  2. Community Empowerment46▲ 8.2×12 topics
  3. Sustainability38▲ 2.0×54 topics
  4. Health Education36▲ 11×10 topics
  5. Sustainable Development32▲ 2.7×34 topics
  6. Human Rights31▲ 4.0×26 topics
  7. Neoliberalism30▲ 11×11 topics
  8. Education29▲ 2.2×49 topics
  9. Corporate Governance29▲ 5.1×14 topics
  10. Social Justice28▲ 6.0×22 topics
  11. Non-Communicable Diseases25▲ 12×3 topics
  12. Maternal Health24▲ 12×4 topics
  13. Environmental Law24▲ 15×6 topics
  14. COVID-1924▲ 2.4×18 topics
  15. Educational Technology24▲ 2.6×24 topics
  16. Social Media24▲ 2.2×19 topics
  17. Breastfeeding24▲ 13×2 topics
  18. Public Health Policy23▲ 12×2 topics
  19. Peacebuilding23▲ 44×4 topics
  20. Child Nutrition23▲ 16×1 topic
  21. Stunting23▲ 16×1 topic
  22. Indonesia22▲ 6.6×5 topics
  23. Economic Development22▲ 3.6×19 topics
  24. Criminal Justice22▲ 13×6 topics
  25. Local Turn21▲ 180×1 topic
  26. Resilience Governance21▲ 180×1 topic
  27. Community Participation21▲ 7.8×8 topics
  28. Colonialism19▲ 5.1×14 topics
  29. Economic Impact18▲ 4.3×7 topics
  30. Child Development18▲ 5.5×8 topics
  31. International Law17▲ 6.9×9 topics
  32. Islamic Banking16▲ 5.6×3 topics
  33. Healthcare Access15▲ 7.0×7 topics
  34. Governance14▲ 5.7×8 topics
  35. Patient Satisfaction14▲ 5.8×6 topics
  36. Restorative Justice14▲ 13×3 topics
  37. Patient Experience13▲ 16×3 topics
  38. Corruption13▲ 10×5 topics
  39. Organizational Behavior13▲ 11×2 topics
  40. Legal Pluralism12▲ 20×3 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?

Timor-Leste has out-published Lesotho every year since 2024, when it overtook it.

still counting100200300Timor-Leste260 in 2025Lesotho132 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 counting0.0020%0.0040%0.0060%Timor-Leste0.0044% in 2025Lesotho0.0022% 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%Lesotho7.0% in 2025Timor-Leste4.8% in 202520102020

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.

Lesotho 05 level0 Timor-Leste
  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, Lesotho or Timor-Leste?

Timor-Leste publishes 1.3× as much research as Lesotho in 2022-now (673 against 516 fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Lesotho or Timor-Leste?

7.0% of Lesotho's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 5.1% for Timor-Leste.

Is Lesotho or Timor-Leste growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +194% against 2018-21 for Timor-Leste, and +52% for Lesotho.

Which has more open access research, Lesotho or Timor-Leste?

83% of Timor-Leste's research is free to read, against 56% of Lesotho's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Lesotho or Timor-Leste?

Lesotho holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Timor-Leste 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%.

Lesotho

  1. 1National University of Lesotho6.7% top 10% · 482 works

Timor-Leste

  1. 1Universidade da Paz6.1% top 10% · 342 works
  2. 2National University of East Timor4.0% top 10% · 330 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.

Lesotho

  1. 1 Rethabile Rosemary Molefi #560,261 worldwide 518 citations · 24 works
  2. 2 John Batani #1,060,934 worldwide 1.2k citations · 55 works
  3. 3 Lucy Nthabiseng Makoae #1,254,679 worldwide 1.6k citations · 23 works
  4. 4 Makhulu Alice Makumane #1,641,636 worldwide 171 citations · 27 works
  5. 5 Ramaele Moshoeshoe #2,029,182 worldwide 69 citations · 18 works

Timor-Leste

  1. 1 João Soares Martins #225,608 worldwide 3.1k citations · 53 works
  2. 2 Seguito Monteiro #2,276,815 worldwide 36 citations · 24 works
  3. 3 Salvador Amaral #2,597,992 worldwide 499 citations · 46 works
  4. 4 Juvinal Ximenes Guterres #2,767,071 worldwide 24 citations · 14 works
  5. 5 Joanita Bendita da Costa Jong #2,958,778 worldwide 368 citations · 23 works