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Nepal vs Somalia

On research quality in 2022-now, Nepal ranks #109 in the world and Somalia #146, of 189 countries. Nepal stands higher in 19 of the 21 fields both publish in, Somalia in 2.

Research profiles alike: 0.84very similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Nepal

World rank, 2022-now
#109
#89 all time
Works, 2022-now
33k
fractional
Top-10% rate
4.8%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
76%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Drug Discovery, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, General Dentistry.

Somalia

World rank, 2022-now
#146
#183 all time
Works, 2022-now
2.5k
fractional
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
81%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health.

Who leads, measure by measure?

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

Nepal 31 level5 Somalia
  1. #109Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#146
  2. 0.42×Citation excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.71×
  3. 33kOutputfractional works, 2022-now2.5k
  4. 4.8%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited10.2%
  5. 7.2Citations per workall time, per fractional work4.8
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 76%Open accessof its works free to read, all time81%
  8. 25%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time50%
  9. +54%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, citation excellence and the top-10% rate are explained in the methodology.

Who leads in each field?

Nepal stands higher in 19 of 21 fields, Somalia in 2. Somalia leads most in Social Sciences (#117 against #124). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Nepal 192 Somalia
  1. #89Agricultural and Biological Sciences-
  2. #76Arts and Humanities-
  3. #82Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology-
  4. #103Business, Management and Accounting-
  5. #54Chemistry-
  6. #113Computer Science-
  7. #62Decision Sciences-
  8. #56Dentistry-
  9. #64Earth and Planetary Sciences-
  10. #93Economics, Econometrics and Finance-
  11. #91Engineering-
  12. #84Environmental Science-
  13. #84Health Professions-
  14. #65Immunology and Microbiology-
  15. #66Materials Science-
  16. #76Mathematics-
  17. #127Medicine#126
  18. #68Neuroscience-
  19. #62Nursing-
  20. #88Psychology-
  21. #124Social Sciences#117

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 Nepal rankSomalia rank Nepal top 10%Somalia top 10% Nepal worksSomalia works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #89 - 5.5% - 2.8k -
Arts and Humanities #76 - 6.8% - 990 -
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology #82 - 4.9% - 1k -
Business, Management and Accounting #103 - 4.8% - 1.4k -
Chemistry #54 - 9.4% - 245 -
Computer Science #113 - 5.0% - 2k -
Decision Sciences #62 - 4.9% - 458 -
Dentistry #56 - 2.3% - 386 -
Earth and Planetary Sciences #64 - 6.0% - 253 -
Economics, Econometrics and Finance #93 - 3.9% - 1.2k -
Engineering #91 - 4.5% - 3.1k -
Environmental Science #84 - 5.1% - 1.9k -
Health Professions #84 - 6.7% - 1.2k -
Immunology and Microbiology #65 - 5.6% - 312 -
Materials Science #66 - 6.2% - 494 -
Mathematics #76 - 7.7% - 292 -
Medicine #127 #126 3.4% 5.7% 8.6k 959
Neuroscience #68 - 5.0% - 233 -
Nursing #62 - 5.0% - 276 -
Psychology #88 - 5.3% - 1k -
Social Sciences #124 #117 6.1% 14.5% 4k 413

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.

Nepal

▲ 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. Epidemiology2,371▲ 1.61×135 topics
  2. Climate Change1,795▲ 1.78×118 topics
  3. Machine Learning1,547▲ 1.25×96 topics
  4. Deep Learning1,443◆ 1.13×85 topics
  5. Globalization1,274▲ 1.75×120 topics
  6. Sustainability1,243▲ 1.37×107 topics
  7. Education906▲ 1.42×107 topics
  8. COVID-19880▲ 1.83×31 topics
  9. Public Health754▲ 1.40×62 topics
  10. Treatment745▲ 1.65×52 topics
  11. Economic Growth711▲ 2.4×32 topics
  12. Environmental Impact703◆ 1.11×69 topics
  13. Quality of Life697▲ 1.30×57 topics
  14. Sustainable Development675▲ 1.16×94 topics
  15. Risk Factors662▲ 1.62×37 topics
  16. Diagnosis650▲ 1.88×41 topics
  17. Mental Health633▲ 1.19×45 topics
  18. Pandemic632▲ 1.72×13 topics
  19. Renewable Energy608◆ 1.13×55 topics
  20. Remote Sensing576▲ 1.27×42 topics
  21. Healthcare552▲ 1.31×38 topics
  22. Conflict544▲ 9.1×10 topics
  23. Cardiovascular Disease520▲ 1.23×39 topics
  24. Depression498▲ 1.53×25 topics
  25. Management494▲ 1.67×38 topics
  26. Food Security480▲ 2.4×22 topics
  27. Risk Management469▲ 2.7×17 topics
  28. Poverty416▲ 12×5 topics
  29. Social Inequality376▲ 3.8×11 topics
  30. IoT364▲ 2.6×19 topics
  31. Surgical Management362▲ 2.4×20 topics
  32. Maternal Mortality338▲ 4.1×5 topics
  33. Democratization326▲ 13×4 topics
  34. Identity Politics315▲ 18×3 topics
  35. Maoist Insurgency315▲ 161×1 topic
  36. Youth Employment315▲ 42×1 topic
  37. Community Health Workers245▲ 7.5×2 topics
  38. Health Inequalities239▲ 5.3×5 topics
  39. Child Mortality216▲ 8.1×1 topic
  40. Health Systems216▲ 8.1×1 topic

Somalia

▲ 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. Epidemiology316▲ 2.4×129 topics
  2. Globalization122▲ 1.90×80 topics
  3. Climate Change118▲ 1.32×67 topics
  4. Sustainability107▲ 1.34×62 topics
  5. Economic Growth100▲ 3.8×23 topics
  6. Public Health96▲ 2.0×57 topics
  7. Inflammation94▲ 1.36×73 topics
  8. Treatment92▲ 2.3×51 topics
  9. Maternal Mortality90▲ 12×5 topics
  10. Renewable Energy86▲ 1.81×33 topics
  11. Diagnosis82▲ 2.7×41 topics
  12. Risk Factors82▲ 2.3×36 topics
  13. COVID-1979▲ 1.85×31 topics
  14. Education77▲ 1.37×69 topics
  15. Immune Response70▲ 3.8×20 topics
  16. Community Health Workers69▲ 24×2 topics
  17. Health Inequalities69▲ 17×4 topics
  18. Vaccine69▲ 5.3×11 topics
  19. Cardiovascular Disease69▲ 1.84×37 topics
  20. Pathogenesis66▲ 3.9×24 topics
  21. Socio-economic Factors64▲ 18×2 topics
  22. Child Mortality64▲ 27×1 topic
  23. Health Systems64▲ 27×1 topic
  24. Management64▲ 2.4×32 topics
  25. Child Development60▲ 4.4×8 topics
  26. Risk Management57▲ 3.7×12 topics
  27. Poverty Reduction57▲ 13×5 topics
  28. Global Burden55▲ 3.1×12 topics
  29. Food Security52▲ 2.9×15 topics
  30. Mortality51▲ 2.7×13 topics
  31. Governance48▲ 4.5×13 topics
  32. Global Burden of Disease46▲ 5.6×4 topics
  33. Vulnerability45▲ 5.9×5 topics
  34. Agriculture45▲ 3.6×12 topics
  35. Maternal and Child Undernutrition42▲ 16×1 topic
  36. Water Sanitation Hygiene42▲ 16×1 topic
  37. Conflict40▲ 7.5×10 topics
  38. Global Health35▲ 6.9×6 topics
  39. Gender Inequality34▲ 7.4×5 topics
  40. Respiratory Infections33▲ 8.8×3 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?

Nepal has out-published Somalia every year since 1980.

still counting5k10kNepal9,772 in 2025Somalia870 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 counting0.20%0.40%0.60%Nepal0.17% in 2025Somalia0.015% 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%Somalia14.9% in 2025Nepal5.4% 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.

Nepal 05 level0 Somalia
  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, Nepal or Somalia?

Nepal publishes 13.0× as much research as Somalia in 2022-now (33k against 2.5k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Nepal or Somalia?

10.2% of Somalia's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 4.8% for Nepal.

Is Nepal or Somalia growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +194% against 2018-21 for Somalia, and +54% for Nepal.

Which has more open access research, Nepal or Somalia?

81% of Somalia's research is free to read, against 76% of Nepal's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Nepal or Somalia?

Nepal holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Somalia 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%.

Nepal

  1. 1Tribhuvan University4.7% top 10% · 16k works
  2. 2College of Medical Sciences4.8% top 10% · 558 works
  3. 3Nepal Development Research Institute8.8% top 10% · 409 works
  4. 4Pokhara University5.3% top 10% · 1.6k works
  5. 5Purbanchal University6.5% top 10% · 334 works
  6. 6Agriculture and Forestry University5.3% top 10% · 1.4k works

Somalia

  1. 1SIMAD University20.2% top 10% · 423 works
  2. 2Somali National University13.1% top 10% · 179 works
  3. 3University of Somalia8.9% top 10% · 139 works
  4. 4Jamhuriya University of Science and Technology21.2% top 10% · 128 works
  5. 5Mogadishu University10.0% top 10% · 153 works
  6. 6Amoud University17.8% top 10% · 94 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.

Nepal

  1. 1 Meghnath Dhimal #20,212 worldwide 83k citations · 338 works
  2. 2 Arun Bhakta Shrestha #60,021 worldwide 17k citations · 187 works
  3. 3 Mandira Lamichhane Dhimal #65,202 worldwide 21k citations · 63 works
  4. 4 Krishna Kumar Aryal #72,386 worldwide 11k citations · 105 works
  5. 5 Santosh Nepal #88,994 worldwide 6.7k citations · 130 works

Somalia

  1. 1 Jama Mohamed #49,156 worldwide 20k citations · 51 works
  2. 2 Abdikafi Hassan Abdi #80,606 worldwide 681 citations · 53 works
  3. 3 Abdimalik Ali Warsame #155,996 worldwide 1.2k citations · 67 works
  4. 4 Ahmed Ismail Mohamed #279,065 worldwide 9.3k citations · 42 works
  5. 5 Bashir Mohamed Osman #336,096 worldwide 1.3k citations · 28 works