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Liberia vs Malawi

On research quality in 2022-now, Malawi ranks #61 in the world and Liberia #132, of 189 countries. Liberia stands higher in 0 of the 4 fields both publish in, Malawi in 4.

Research profiles alike: 0.77very similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Liberia

World rank, 2022-now
#132
#133 all time
Works, 2022-now
361
fractional
Top-10% rate
10.6%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
68%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Horticulture, Theoretical Computer Science, Emergency Medical Services.

Malawi

World rank, 2022-now
#61
#55 all time
Works, 2022-now
3k
fractional
Top-10% rate
9.5%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
63%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Forestry, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Parasitology.

Who leads, measure by measure?

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

Liberia 31 level5 Malawi
  1. #132Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#61
  2. 0.99×Excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected1.12×
  3. 361Outputfractional works, 2022-now3k
  4. 10.6%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited9.5%
  5. 9.8Citations per workall time, per fractional work16.6
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 68%Open accessof its works free to read, all time63%
  8. 45%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time49%
  9. +68%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+46%

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?

Liberia stands higher in 0 of 4 fields, Malawi in 4. Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Liberia 04 Malawi
  1. -Agricultural and Biological Sciences#51
  2. -Environmental Science#72
  3. -Medicine#45
  4. -Social Sciences#65

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 Liberia rankMalawi rank Liberia top 10%Malawi top 10% Liberia worksMalawi works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences - #51 - 11.7% - 336
Environmental Science - #72 - 7.4% - 275
Medicine - #45 - 11.8% - 641
Social Sciences - #65 - 8.2% - 534

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.

Liberia

▲ 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. Sustainability21▲ 2.0×46 topics
  2. Environmental Impact20▲ 2.8×35 topics
  3. Machine Learning18▲ 1.23×35 topics
  4. Epidemiology17◆ 1.00×52 topics
  5. COVID-1916▲ 3.0×16 topics
  6. Public Health16▲ 2.6×29 topics
  7. Vaccine16▲ 9.4×9 topics
  8. Immune Response15▲ 6.3×10 topics
  9. Climate Change15▲ 1.28×39 topics
  10. Maternal Mortality15▲ 15×4 topics
  11. Globalization14▲ 1.70×34 topics
  12. Sustainable Development13▲ 1.93×24 topics
  13. Renewable Energy13▲ 2.0×23 topics
  14. Mental Health12▲ 2.0×21 topics
  15. Pathogenesis12▲ 5.6×8 topics
  16. Community Health Workers12▲ 31×2 topics
  17. Transmission11▲ 46×3 topics
  18. Outbreak11▲ 67×2 topics
  19. Ebola Virus11▲ 91×1 topic
  20. Reservoirs11▲ 91×1 topic
  21. Ethical Considerations10▲ 7.1×10 topics
  22. Health Inequalities10▲ 19×2 topics
  23. Infectious Diseases10▲ 7.0×6 topics
  24. Socio-economic Factors10▲ 21×2 topics
  25. Child Mortality10▲ 31×1 topic
  26. Health Systems10▲ 31×1 topic
  27. Healthcare Workers9▲ 9.2×3 topics
  28. Recycling9▲ 5.4×7 topics
  29. Waste Management8▲ 4.7×5 topics
  30. Risk Perception8▲ 6.7×3 topics
  31. Risk Management8▲ 3.7×10 topics
  32. Development7▲ 4.4×11 topics
  33. SARS-CoV-27▲ 5.1×6 topics
  34. Health Equity6▲ 5.0×5 topics
  35. Resource Allocation6▲ 7.8×2 topics
  36. Global Health6▲ 8.5×4 topics
  37. Disaster Response6▲ 17×2 topics
  38. Poverty Reduction6▲ 9.8×4 topics
  39. Emergency Preparedness5▲ 30×1 topic
  40. Triage5▲ 30×1 topic

Malawi

▲ 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. Epidemiology245▲ 1.73×119 topics
  2. Climate Change202▲ 2.1×103 topics
  3. Sustainability141▲ 1.62×81 topics
  4. Globalization99▲ 1.41×86 topics
  5. Environmental Impact98▲ 1.61×51 topics
  6. Maternal Mortality91▲ 11×5 topics
  7. Sustainable Agriculture88▲ 8.0×13 topics
  8. Community Health Workers87▲ 28×2 topics
  9. Antiretroviral Therapy80▲ 14×6 topics
  10. Health Inequalities76▲ 18×4 topics
  11. Socio-economic Factors75▲ 19×2 topics
  12. Biodiversity74▲ 2.8×32 topics
  13. Child Mortality74▲ 29×1 topic
  14. Health Systems74▲ 29×1 topic
  15. Smallholder Farmers73▲ 9.8×6 topics
  16. Child Development72▲ 5.0×8 topics
  17. Social Networks70▲ 7.2×9 topics
  18. Food Security65▲ 3.4×20 topics
  19. Biodiversity Conservation65▲ 4.8×16 topics
  20. Rural Development64▲ 5.3×15 topics
  21. Global Burden62▲ 3.2×12 topics
  22. Poverty Reduction62▲ 13×5 topics
  23. Vaccine60▲ 4.2×11 topics
  24. Colonialism58▲ 3.5×17 topics
  25. Genetic Diversity58▲ 3.8×20 topics
  26. Global Burden of Disease57▲ 6.5×4 topics
  27. Mortality Rates53▲ 16×2 topics
  28. Technology Adoption53▲ 8.0×6 topics
  29. Maternal and Child Undernutrition52▲ 18×1 topic
  30. Water Sanitation Hygiene52▲ 18×1 topic
  31. HIV Transmission51▲ 19×2 topics
  32. Gender Inequality48▲ 9.7×6 topics
  33. Viral Load47▲ 17×2 topics
  34. Vulnerability47▲ 5.7×8 topics
  35. Agricultural Innovation44▲ 27×3 topics
  36. Preexposure Prophylaxis44▲ 26×1 topic
  37. Stigma and Discrimination44▲ 26×1 topic
  38. Livelihood Diversification44▲ 39×1 topic
  39. Market Participation44▲ 39×1 topic
  40. Global Health42▲ 7.6×6 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?

Malawi has out-published Liberia every year since 1980.

still counting5001kMalawi971 in 2025Liberia103 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%Malawi0.017% in 2025Liberia0.0017% 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%Liberia13.8% in 2025Malawi10.2% 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.

Liberia 05 level0 Malawi
  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, Liberia or Malawi?

Malawi publishes 8.4× as much research as Liberia in 2022-now (3k against 361 fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Liberia or Malawi?

10.6% of Liberia's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 9.5% for Malawi.

Is Liberia or Malawi growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +68% against 2018-21 for Liberia, and +46% for Malawi.

Which has more open access research, Liberia or Malawi?

68% of Liberia's research is free to read, against 63% of Malawi's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Liberia or Malawi?

Liberia holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Malawi 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%.

Liberia

  1. 1University of Liberia10.8% top 10% · 149 works
  2. 2William V. S. Tubman University16.1% top 10% · 86 works

Malawi

  1. 1University of Malawi9.1% top 10% · 650 works
  2. 2Kamuzu Central Hospital12.3% top 10% · 279 works
  3. 3Ministry of Education Science and Technology7.7% top 10% · 312 works
  4. 4Mzuzu University6.9% top 10% · 241 works
  5. 5Malawi University of Science and Technology6.9% top 10% · 172 works
  6. 6Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources11.0% top 10% · 243 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.

Liberia

  1. 1 Abdulfatah Abdu Yusuf #91,971 worldwide 2.8k citations · 84 works
  2. 2 Tolbert Nyenswah #226,740 worldwide 4.6k citations · 102 works
  3. 3 Fatorma K. Bolay #243,088 worldwide 3.5k citations · 57 works
  4. 4 Lawrence Fakoli #287,221 worldwide 2k citations · 22 works
  5. 5 Chea Sanford Wesseh #396,483 worldwide 1.2k citations · 25 works

Malawi

  1. 1 Amelia Catharine Crampin #138,780 worldwide 23k citations · 372 works
  2. 2 Kelias Phiri Msyamboza #162,077 worldwide 12k citations · 53 works
  3. 3 Eduard E. Zijlstra #238,180 worldwide 4.8k citations · 91 works
  4. 4 Elsbeth Robson #239,786 worldwide 3k citations · 121 works
  5. 5 Felix Khuluza #244,579 worldwide 1.6k citations · 40 works