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Poland vs Spain

On research quality in 2022-now, Spain ranks #10 in the world and Poland #23, of 189 countries. Poland stands higher in 0 of the 26 fields both publish in, Spain in 26.

Research profiles alike: 0.60similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Poland

World rank, 2022-now
#23
#28 all time
Works, 2022-now
250k
fractional
Top-10% rate
9.2%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
49%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Linguistics and Language, General Social Sciences, History.

Spain

World rank, 2022-now
#10
#10 all time
Works, 2022-now
435k
fractional
Top-10% rate
11.0%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
52%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Life-span and Life-course Studies, General Social Sciences, General Arts and Humanities.

Who leads, measure by measure?

Spain leads on 8 of 9 measures: research quality, citation excellence for its fields, output, top-10% rate, citations per work, open access, international co-authorship and growth. Poland leads on none. The two are level on institutions in the world top 100.

Poland 01 level8 Spain
  1. #23Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#10
  2. 0.93×Citation excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected1.08×
  3. 250kOutputfractional works, 2022-now435k
  4. 9.2%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited11.0%
  5. 9.2Citations per workall time, per fractional work19.1
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 49%Open accessof its works free to read, all time52%
  8. 13%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time23%
  9. -11%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+1%

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?

Poland stands higher in 0 of 26 fields, Spain in 26. Spain leads most in Chemical Engineering (#12 against #25). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Poland 026 Spain
  1. #21Agricultural and Biological Sciences#7
  2. #19Arts and Humanities#5
  3. #25Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#10
  4. #25Business, Management and Accounting#7
  5. #25Chemical Engineering#12
  6. #17Chemistry#7
  7. #23Computer Science#12
  8. #30Decision Sciences#11
  9. #18Dentistry#6
  10. #35Earth and Planetary Sciences#13
  11. #21Economics, Econometrics and Finance#10
  12. #22Energy#9
  13. #25Engineering#13
  14. #28Environmental Science#8
  15. #28Health Professions#9
  16. #30Immunology and Microbiology#12
  17. #17Materials Science#10
  18. #24Mathematics#9
  19. #29Medicine#12
  20. #29Neuroscience#12
  21. #21Nursing#5
  22. #18Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics#10
  23. #23Physics and Astronomy#9
  24. #30Psychology#10
  25. #24Social Sciences#6
  26. #16Veterinary#11

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 Poland rankSpain rank Poland top 10%Spain top 10% Poland worksSpain works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #21 #7 11.8% 13.0% 12k 17k
Arts and Humanities #19 #5 9.8% 11.6% 17k 35k
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology #25 #10 9.3% 10.3% 12k 22k
Business, Management and Accounting #25 #7 8.7% 14.0% 7.4k 10k
Chemical Engineering #25 #12 7.2% 8.9% 905 1.4k
Chemistry #17 #7 9.0% 9.7% 4.5k 6.2k
Computer Science #23 #12 8.1% 11.8% 11k 25k
Decision Sciences #30 #11 8.1% 13.2% 1.7k 3k
Dentistry #18 #6 20.1% 17.3% 965 1.7k
Earth and Planetary Sciences #35 #13 7.1% 9.6% 3.3k 7.1k
Economics, Econometrics and Finance #21 #10 8.5% 12.2% 6.7k 8.2k
Energy #22 #9 10.1% 8.6% 2.1k 3.2k
Engineering #25 #13 8.3% 9.5% 32k 39k
Environmental Science #28 #8 9.0% 10.3% 12k 21k
Health Professions #28 #9 10.4% 12.2% 3.7k 11k
Immunology and Microbiology #30 #12 9.9% 10.1% 2.1k 4.8k
Materials Science #17 #10 7.2% 8.9% 8.7k 9.5k
Mathematics #24 #9 8.1% 10.9% 2.9k 4.6k
Medicine #29 #12 10.5% 10.1% 40k 100k
Neuroscience #29 #12 8.9% 9.6% 3.4k 7.3k
Nursing #21 #5 12.0% 12.7% 1.3k 1.9k
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics #18 #10 12.5% 11.2% 779 1k
Physics and Astronomy #23 #9 7.3% 11.0% 5.6k 10k
Psychology #30 #10 8.2% 11.6% 7k 17k
Social Sciences #24 #6 8.7% 12.3% 50k 66k
Veterinary #16 #11 10.4% 12.2% 359 690

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.

Poland

▲ 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. Globalization11k▲ 2.1×185 topics
  2. Education10k▲ 2.2×159 topics
  3. Cultural Studies7,244▲ 7.1×45 topics
  4. European Union7,132▲ 12×29 topics
  5. Human Rights6,479▲ 2.3×90 topics
  6. Nationalism6,245▲ 5.0×34 topics
  7. Migration6,012▲ 6.4×35 topics
  8. Ethnography5,863▲ 12×16 topics
  9. Innovation5,612▲ 1.97×90 topics
  10. Literature5,338▲ 3.5×64 topics
  11. Eastern Europe5,308▲ 37×3 topics
  12. Soviet Union5,301▲ 35×3 topics
  13. Pedagogy4,873▲ 3.5×30 topics
  14. Cultural Identity4,864▲ 3.5×40 topics
  15. Cultural Discourse4,864▲ 49×3 topics
  16. Polish history4,844▲ 71×1 topic
  17. Polish minority4,844▲ 71×1 topic
  18. Ethics4,813▲ 3.4×62 topics
  19. Cultural Heritage4,748▲ 3.2×40 topics
  20. Sociolinguistics4,605▲ 9.1×9 topics
  21. Culture4,528▲ 3.1×40 topics
  22. Language4,404▲ 6.4×15 topics
  23. Urban Development4,401▲ 4.5×23 topics
  24. Multilingualism4,107▲ 9.2×6 topics
  25. Lexicography4,106▲ 17×5 topics
  26. Translation4,103▲ 9.0×7 topics
  27. Media Discourse3,674▲ 21×4 topics
  28. Social Sciences3,670▲ 9.2×24 topics
  29. Lifelong Learning3,640▲ 6.4×11 topics
  30. Ethnolinguistics3,637▲ 44×2 topics
  31. Public Administration3,554▲ 16×6 topics
  32. European Union Law3,482▲ 79×2 topics
  33. Youth Development3,383▲ 13×9 topics
  34. Digital Innovations3,236▲ 81×1 topic
  35. National Identity3,110▲ 9.7×11 topics
  36. Social Change3,067▲ 9.0×21 topics
  37. Data Privacy2,893▲ 9.6×4 topics
  38. Historiography2,859▲ 8.5×15 topics
  39. Memory Studies2,850▲ 16×6 topics
  40. Anthropology2,767▲ 11×11 topics

Spain

▲ 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. Epidemiology25k▲ 1.30×140 topics
  2. Climate Change16k▲ 1.20×131 topics
  3. Education15k▲ 1.76×160 topics
  4. Globalization14k▲ 1.47×185 topics
  5. Sustainability12k◆ 1.03×139 topics
  6. Inflammation11k◆ 1.07×83 topics
  7. Quality of Life9,809▲ 1.38×61 topics
  8. History9,611▲ 2.8×66 topics
  9. Mental Health8,938▲ 1.27×48 topics
  10. Public Health8,852▲ 1.23×77 topics
  11. COVID-198,630▲ 1.35×34 topics
  12. Treatment8,507▲ 1.42×52 topics
  13. Gender8,303▲ 3.1×58 topics
  14. Cultural Heritage7,636▲ 2.9×40 topics
  15. Innovation7,337▲ 1.44×90 topics
  16. Literature7,334▲ 2.7×64 topics
  17. Educational Technology7,276▲ 1.25×47 topics
  18. Identity7,246▲ 2.0×80 topics
  19. Human Rights7,119▲ 1.41×91 topics
  20. Risk Factors7,034▲ 1.30×37 topics
  21. Cardiovascular Disease6,815▲ 1.21×39 topics
  22. Diagnosis6,484▲ 1.41×41 topics
  23. Latin America5,627▲ 6.0×23 topics
  24. Communication5,371▲ 3.5×25 topics
  25. Ethics5,319▲ 2.1×62 topics
  26. Culture5,048▲ 1.96×40 topics
  27. Technology4,954▲ 1.92×44 topics
  28. Social Movements4,727▲ 3.2×33 topics
  29. Welfare State4,694▲ 12×4 topics
  30. Urban Development4,392▲ 2.5×23 topics
  31. Society4,274▲ 4.5×26 topics
  32. Historiography4,146▲ 6.9×15 topics
  33. Spain3,916▲ 22×5 topics
  34. Informal Learning3,128▲ 4.9×6 topics
  35. Iberian Peninsula2,928▲ 21×3 topics
  36. Participation2,747▲ 5.8×5 topics
  37. Political Power2,708▲ 12×5 topics
  38. Family Support2,484▲ 7.8×2 topics
  39. Social Work2,467▲ 7.6×4 topics
  40. Migrant Integration2,432▲ 15×2 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?

Spain has out-published Poland every year since 1985, when it overtook it.

still counting50k100k150kSpain111k in 2025Poland64k 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 counting1.0%2.0%3.0%Spain1.9% in 2025Poland1.1% 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%Spain10.8% in 2025Poland9.2% 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.

Poland 02 level3 Spain
  1. 0In the world top 500
  2. 0In the top 1000
  3. 1In the top 50015
  4. 5In the top 1,00037
  5. #29Elite capacityrank among 204 countries#7

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, Poland or Spain?

Spain publishes 1.7× as much research as Poland in 2022-now (435k against 250k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Poland or Spain?

11.0% of Spain's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 9.2% for Poland.

Is Poland or Spain growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +1% against 2018-21 for Spain, and -11% for Poland.

Which has more open access research, Poland or Spain?

52% of Spain's research is free to read, against 49% of Poland's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Poland or Spain?

Poland holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Spain 0; in the top 1,000 it is 5 against 37.

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%.

Poland

  1. 1Polish Academy of Sciences9.4% top 10% · 21k works
  2. 2Jagiellonian University8.7% top 10% · 14k works
  3. 3University of Warsaw8.8% top 10% · 11k works
  4. 4AGH University of Krakow9.1% top 10% · 8k works
  5. 5University of Wrocław7.6% top 10% · 4.2k works
  6. 6Wrocław University of Science and Technology8.6% top 10% · 3.4k works

Spain

  1. 1Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas11.1% top 10% · 26k works
  2. 2Universitat de Barcelona11.6% top 10% · 16k works
  3. 3Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona12.5% top 10% · 13k works
  4. 4Universitat Pompeu Fabra15.6% top 10% · 4.1k works
  5. 5University of the Basque Country11.3% top 10% · 10k works
  6. 6Universidad Autónoma de Madrid11.2% top 10% · 12k 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.

Poland

  1. 1 P. Jaranowski #637 worldwide 94k citations · 375 works
  2. 2 T. Kunigo #1,235 worldwide 24k citations · 283 works
  3. 3 N. Haddad #1,253 worldwide 21k citations · 240 works
  4. 4 O. Arslan #1,266 worldwide 42k citations · 484 works
  5. 5 M. Lisovyi #1,357 worldwide 65k citations · 863 works

Spain

  1. 1 Manuel Delgado‐Baquerizo #190 worldwide 47k citations · 611 works
  2. 2 Cecilio García-Quirós #204 worldwide 57k citations · 198 works
  3. 3 J. Calderón Bustillo #251 worldwide 86k citations · 281 works
  4. 4 D. Keitel #327 worldwide 89k citations · 319 works
  5. 5 T. Dent #357 worldwide 96k citations · 327 works

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