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Mauritania vs North Korea

On research quality in 2022-now, North Korea ranks #183 in the world and Mauritania #184, of 189 countries. Mauritania stands higher in 0 of the 1 fields both publish in, North Korea in 1.

Research profiles alike: 0.25somewhat alike shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Mauritania

World rank, 2022-now
#184
#192 all time
Works, 2022-now
269
fractional
Top-10% rate
6.2%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
55%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Forestry, Applied Mathematics, Modeling and Simulation.

North Korea

World rank, 2022-now
#183
#191 all time
Works, 2022-now
841
fractional
Top-10% rate
4.4%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
54%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes, Condensed Matter Physics, Geometry and Topology.

Who leads, measure by measure?

Mauritania leads on 4 of 9 measures: citation excellence for its fields, top-10% rate, citations per work and international co-authorship. North Korea leads on 3 of 9 measures: research quality, output and growth. The two are level on institutions in the world top 100 and open access.

Mauritania 42 level3 North Korea
  1. #184Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#183
  2. 0.86×Citation excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.81×
  3. 269Outputfractional works, 2022-now841
  4. 6.2%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited4.4%
  5. 8.6Citations per workall time, per fractional work8.1
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 55%Open accessof its works free to read, all time54%
  8. 56%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time48%
  9. +36%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+168%

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?

Mauritania stands higher in 0 of 1 fields, North Korea in 1. Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Mauritania 01 North Korea
  1. -Engineering#120

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 Mauritania rankNorth Korea rank Mauritania top 10%North Korea top 10% Mauritania worksNorth Korea works
Engineering - #120 - 3.1% - 262

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.

Mauritania

▲ 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. Epidemiology20▲ 1.54×55 topics
  2. Climate Change20▲ 2.2×41 topics
  3. Machine Learning17▲ 1.60×35 topics
  4. Deep Learning15▲ 1.34×32 topics
  5. Renewable Energy11▲ 2.4×22 topics
  6. Remote Sensing10▲ 2.5×17 topics
  7. Sustainability9◆ 1.11×22 topics
  8. Nonlinear Equations9▲ 21×3 topics
  9. Environmental Impact7▲ 1.34×19 topics
  10. Public Health7▲ 1.43×22 topics
  11. Smallholder Farmers7▲ 9.9×2 topics
  12. Fractional Laplacian6▲ 87×1 topic
  13. Immune Response6▲ 3.4×11 topics
  14. Sobolev Spaces6▲ 87×1 topic
  15. Biodiversity Conservation5▲ 4.3×4 topics
  16. Finite Element5▲ 35×2 topics
  17. Porous Media5▲ 11×3 topics
  18. Infectious Diseases5▲ 4.3×5 topics
  19. Population Dynamics4▲ 5.4×7 topics
  20. Agroforestry4▲ 20×1 topic
  21. Tree Domestication4▲ 60×1 topic
  22. Heterogeneous4▲ 37×1 topic
  23. Multiscale Methods4▲ 37×1 topic
  24. Conservation4▲ 2.9×10 topics
  25. Antiviral Therapy4▲ 13×3 topics
  26. Boundary Value Problems4▲ 24×3 topics
  27. Islam4▲ 5.9×3 topics
  28. Gender Equality4▲ 4.1×4 topics
  29. Migration4▲ 3.4×5 topics
  30. North Africa4▲ 32×2 topics
  31. Liver Disease4▲ 12×2 topics
  32. Poverty Reduction4▲ 8.5×3 topics
  33. Grid Integration4▲ 11×3 topics
  34. Controllability3▲ 23×2 topics
  35. Sea-Level Rise3▲ 7.8×4 topics
  36. Cancer Incidence3▲ 6.4×3 topics
  37. Marine Ecosystems3▲ 16×2 topics
  38. Empowerment2▲ 8.0×1 topic
  39. Fisheries Sustainability2▲ 9.1×2 topics
  40. Microfinance2▲ 15×1 topic

North 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. Machine Learning45▲ 1.25×70 topics
  2. Deep Learning42◆ 1.15×65 topics
  3. Climate Change30◆ 1.02×66 topics
  4. Neural Networks30▲ 1.77×33 topics
  5. Mechanical Properties24▲ 2.3×28 topics
  6. Biomedical Applications24▲ 1.86×30 topics
  7. Nanoparticles23▲ 1.72×37 topics
  8. Environmental Impact20◆ 1.10×38 topics
  9. Nanomaterials20▲ 1.78×17 topics
  10. Nanocomposites20▲ 2.3×21 topics
  11. Renewable Energy19▲ 1.24×31 topics
  12. Oxidative Stress18◆ 1.05×47 topics
  13. Energy Efficiency18▲ 1.76×22 topics
  14. Remote Sensing17▲ 1.32×31 topics
  15. Graphene16▲ 2.3×11 topics
  16. Vibration Analysis15▲ 5.3×9 topics
  17. Catalysis15▲ 2.1×22 topics
  18. Nonlinear Systems14▲ 6.1×8 topics
  19. Microstructure13▲ 2.3×19 topics
  20. Biosensors12▲ 2.4×11 topics
  21. Metal Recovery12▲ 5.5×3 topics
  22. Numerical Simulation11▲ 3.6×12 topics
  23. Artificial Neural Networks11▲ 2.2×9 topics
  24. Buckling Behavior11▲ 14×2 topics
  25. Nonlinear Dynamics10▲ 4.4×6 topics
  26. Finite Element Method10▲ 9.8×6 topics
  27. Stability Analysis10▲ 5.7×6 topics
  28. Molecular Dynamics9▲ 4.8×7 topics
  29. Fluid-Structure Interaction9▲ 5.6×6 topics
  30. Materials9▲ 3.5×6 topics
  31. Rare Earth Elements8▲ 5.1×4 topics
  32. Superconductivity8▲ 4.4×9 topics
  33. Entanglement8▲ 4.9×4 topics
  34. Metamaterials8▲ 4.9×5 topics
  35. Microstructural Evolution8▲ 4.8×4 topics
  36. Optical Modulators7▲ 4.8×3 topics
  37. Composite Plates7▲ 21×1 topic
  38. Functionally Graded Materials7▲ 21×1 topic
  39. Battery Recycling6▲ 7.2×1 topic
  40. Hydrometallurgical Processes6▲ 7.2×1 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?

North Korea has out-published Mauritania every year since 2013, when it overtook it.

still counting200400600North Korea408 in 2025Mauritania80 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 counting0.0025%0.0050%0.0075%North Korea0.0069% in 2025Mauritania0.0014% 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%Mauritania7.6% in 2025North Korea3.6% in 20252020

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.

Mauritania 05 level0 North Korea
  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, Mauritania or North Korea?

North Korea publishes 3.1× as much research as Mauritania in 2022-now (841 against 269 fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Mauritania or North Korea?

6.2% of Mauritania's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 4.4% for North Korea.

Is Mauritania or North Korea growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +168% against 2018-21 for North Korea, and +36% for Mauritania.

Which has more open access research, Mauritania or North Korea?

55% of Mauritania's research is free to read, against 54% of North Korea's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Mauritania or North Korea?

Mauritania holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and North Korea 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%.

Mauritania

  1. 1Université de Nouakchott5.9% top 10% · 184 works

North Korea

  1. 1Kim Il-sung University2.5% top 10% · 173 works
  2. 2Kim Chaek University of Technology1.4% top 10% · 232 works
  3. 3Institute of Natural Science9.3% top 10% · 287 works
  4. 4Pyongyang University of Science and Technology1.7% top 10% · 104 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.

Mauritania

  1. 1 Mohamedhen Vall Nounou #914,374 worldwide 20 citations · 18 works
  2. 2 Boudy Bilal #1,746,841 worldwide 960 citations · 40 works
  3. 3 Hamed Ould Sidi #2,005,584 worldwide 92 citations · 30 works
  4. 4 Ousmane Ly #2,150,804 worldwide 372 citations · 24 works
  5. 5 Mohamed Lemine Cheikh Brahim Ahmed #2,182,622 worldwide 1.8k citations · 32 works

North Korea

  1. 1 Un-Gi Jong #589,064 worldwide 2k citations · 71 works
  2. 2 Yun-Hyok Kye #951,780 worldwide 1.1k citations · 38 works
  3. 3 Chol‐Jun Yu #1,569,436 worldwide 2.7k citations · 144 works
  4. 4 Sunghyok Kim #1,881,333 worldwide 656 citations · 15 works
  5. 5 O Hyong-Chol #2,399,720 worldwide 182 citations · 44 works