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Saudi Arabia vs Tunisia

On research quality in 2022-now, Saudi Arabia ranks #31 in the world and Tunisia #139, of 189 countries. Saudi Arabia stands higher in 25 of the 25 fields both publish in, Tunisia in 0.

Research profiles alike: 0.50similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Saudi Arabia

World rank, 2022-now
#31
#29 all time
Works, 2022-now
156k
fractional
Top-10% rate
14.4%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
57%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: General Dentistry, Orthodontics, Modeling and Simulation.

Tunisia

World rank, 2022-now
#139
#115 all time
Works, 2022-now
38k
fractional
Top-10% rate
5.9%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
33%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Algebra and Number Theory, Mathematical Physics, Applied Mathematics.

Who leads, measure by measure?

Saudi Arabia 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. Tunisia leads on none. The two are level on institutions in the world top 100.

Saudi Arabia 81 level0 Tunisia
  1. #31Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#139
  2. 1.18×Citation excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.54×
  3. 156kOutputfractional works, 2022-now38k
  4. 14.4%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited5.9%
  5. 16.5Citations per workall time, per fractional work10.1
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 57%Open accessof its works free to read, all time33%
  8. 43%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time33%
  9. +72%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+7%

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?

Saudi Arabia stands higher in 25 of 25 fields, Tunisia in 0. Saudi Arabia leads most in Chemistry (#15 against #65). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Saudi Arabia 250 Tunisia
  1. #31Agricultural and Biological Sciences#100
  2. #47Arts and Humanities#99
  3. #32Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#92
  4. #28Business, Management and Accounting#94
  5. #18Chemical Engineering-
  6. #15Chemistry#65
  7. #26Computer Science#91
  8. #28Decision Sciences#73
  9. #24Dentistry#58
  10. #24Earth and Planetary Sciences#68
  11. #39Economics, Econometrics and Finance#80
  12. #20Energy#63
  13. #24Engineering#93
  14. #30Environmental Science#92
  15. #30Health Professions#95
  16. #39Immunology and Microbiology#70
  17. #20Materials Science#75
  18. #27Mathematics#69
  19. #43Medicine#139
  20. #35Neuroscience#64
  21. #30Nursing-
  22. #22Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics-
  23. #39Physics and Astronomy#72
  24. #34Psychology#98
  25. #52Social Sciences#146

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 Saudi Arabia rankTunisia rank Saudi Arabia top 10%Tunisia top 10% Saudi Arabia worksTunisia works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #31 #100 18.3% 8.8% 5.9k 2.3k
Arts and Humanities #47 #99 14.1% 8.1% 2.2k 392
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology #32 #92 11.6% 4.3% 7.4k 1.6k
Business, Management and Accounting #28 #94 20.2% 13.2% 4k 1.3k
Chemical Engineering #18 - 13.7% - 947 -
Chemistry #15 #65 16.4% 7.1% 4.5k 565
Computer Science #26 #91 19.3% 7.6% 14k 3.4k
Decision Sciences #28 #73 17.4% 8.6% 1.8k 306
Dentistry #24 #58 11.6% 3.9% 3.4k 201
Earth and Planetary Sciences #24 #68 15.3% 4.8% 1.4k 531
Economics, Econometrics and Finance #39 #80 15.7% 12.7% 2.3k 1.2k
Energy #20 #63 13.0% 7.0% 3k 511
Engineering #24 #93 16.2% 5.8% 26k 5.7k
Environmental Science #30 #92 16.5% 6.9% 6k 1.6k
Health Professions #30 #95 15.0% 5.6% 4.2k 934
Immunology and Microbiology #39 #70 10.4% 3.2% 1.4k 340
Materials Science #20 #75 14.6% 6.4% 9.8k 1.4k
Mathematics #27 #69 16.6% 8.1% 4.7k 1.1k
Medicine #43 #139 9.4% 2.9% 33k 11k
Neuroscience #35 #64 13.4% 5.2% 2k 426
Nursing #30 - 13.1% - 995 -
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics #22 - 15.2% - 1.2k -
Physics and Astronomy #39 #72 14.3% 6.1% 2.6k 409
Psychology #34 #98 13.4% 5.8% 4.1k 903
Social Sciences #52 #146 15.4% 7.5% 8.4k 2k

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.

Saudi Arabia

▲ 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 Learning9,377▲ 1.57×97 topics
  2. Epidemiology8,606▲ 1.20×140 topics
  3. Deep Learning8,212▲ 1.33×85 topics
  4. Nanomaterials4,903▲ 2.6×21 topics
  5. Inflammation4,358◆ 1.14×83 topics
  6. Nanoparticles4,169▲ 1.85×44 topics
  7. Renewable Energy3,548▲ 1.37×61 topics
  8. Healthcare3,546▲ 1.73×38 topics
  9. Oxidative Stress3,515▲ 1.19×63 topics
  10. Quality of Life3,402▲ 1.31×58 topics
  11. Environmental Impact3,365◆ 1.10×72 topics
  12. Heat Transfer3,190▲ 3.6×20 topics
  13. Biomedical Applications3,145▲ 1.48×36 topics
  14. COVID-192,875▲ 1.23×33 topics
  15. Graphene2,614▲ 2.2×12 topics
  16. Nanocomposites2,530▲ 1.79×22 topics
  17. Supply Chain Management2,398▲ 1.49×26 topics
  18. Antioxidant2,358▲ 1.92×51 topics
  19. Synthesis1,863▲ 2.8×37 topics
  20. Toxicity1,816▲ 2.3×20 topics
  21. Nanostructures1,774▲ 2.4×17 topics
  22. IoT Security1,724▲ 3.1×3 topics
  23. Smart Cities1,649▲ 3.5×8 topics
  24. Water Splitting1,646▲ 2.5×4 topics
  25. Experimental Investigation1,634▲ 8.8×5 topics
  26. Nonlinear Equations1,616▲ 7.0×6 topics
  27. Applications1,601▲ 3.3×8 topics
  28. Solar Energy1,585▲ 2.8×5 topics
  29. Antimicrobial1,475▲ 2.9×14 topics
  30. Green Synthesis1,351▲ 4.0×5 topics
  31. Thermal Conductivity1,290▲ 4.5×8 topics
  32. Nanofluids1,272▲ 8.6×2 topics
  33. Review1,231▲ 5.7×5 topics
  34. Viscosity1,059▲ 8.3×4 topics
  35. Convective Transport1,015▲ 12×1 topic
  36. Enhancement1,015▲ 12×1 topic
  37. Fractional Calculus1,005▲ 9.9×2 topics
  38. Anomalous Diffusion942▲ 9.4×2 topics
  39. Homotopy Analysis Method910▲ 11×1 topic
  40. Random Walk910▲ 11×1 topic

Tunisia

▲ 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. Epidemiology2,800▲ 1.62×140 topics
  2. Deep Learning2,110▲ 1.41×84 topics
  3. Machine Learning1,653◆ 1.14×95 topics
  4. Treatment1,221▲ 2.3×52 topics
  5. Diagnosis1,199▲ 3.0×41 topics
  6. Inflammation1,097▲ 1.19×83 topics
  7. Climate Change1,054◆ 0.89×118 topics
  8. Renewable Energy956▲ 1.52×58 topics
  9. Neural Networks818▲ 1.22×42 topics
  10. Sustainability791▼ 0.74×113 topics
  11. Oxidative Stress785◆ 1.10×62 topics
  12. Environmental Impact738◆ 1.00×71 topics
  13. Management681▲ 1.96×39 topics
  14. Quality of Life650◆ 1.03×59 topics
  15. Healthcare609▲ 1.23×36 topics
  16. Cardiovascular Disease592▲ 1.19×39 topics
  17. Genetics548▲ 1.78×27 topics
  18. Risk Factors548◆ 1.14×37 topics
  19. Autoantibodies535▲ 5.2×8 topics
  20. Convolutional Neural Networks522▲ 1.65×14 topics
  21. Corporate Governance495▲ 1.55×29 topics
  22. Antioxidant Activity478▲ 1.77×32 topics
  23. Economic Growth477▲ 1.35×33 topics
  24. Chemotherapy463▲ 1.50×25 topics
  25. Clinical Practice Guidelines460▲ 1.92×14 topics
  26. Surgical Management449▲ 2.5×20 topics
  27. Pathogenesis421▲ 1.89×24 topics
  28. Global Burden414▲ 1.74×12 topics
  29. Classification383▲ 1.93×13 topics
  30. Monetary Policy380▲ 3.7×11 topics
  31. Islam369▲ 4.1×5 topics
  32. Immunosuppressive Therapy313▲ 3.8×8 topics
  33. Social Influence307▲ 3.3×3 topics
  34. Malay Language282▲ 4.6×1 topic
  35. Sharia Law282▲ 4.5×1 topic
  36. Phenolic Compounds277▲ 3.5×9 topics
  37. Public Oversight239▲ 4.5×1 topic
  38. Transport Policy239▲ 4.5×1 topic
  39. Air Force238▲ 4.6×1 topic
  40. Warfare238▲ 4.6×1 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?

Saudi Arabia has out-published Tunisia every year since 2009, when it overtook it.

still counting20k40k60kSaudi Arabia45k in 2025Tunisia10k 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 counting0.50%1.0%Saudi Arabia0.76% in 2025Tunisia0.18% 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%Saudi Arabia15.0% in 2025Tunisia6.3% 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.

Saudi Arabia 32 level0 Tunisia
  1. 0In the world top 500
  2. 0In the top 1000
  3. 1In the top 5000
  4. 2In the top 1,0000
  5. #34Elite 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, Saudi Arabia or Tunisia?

Saudi Arabia publishes 4.1× as much research as Tunisia in 2022-now (156k against 38k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Saudi Arabia or Tunisia?

14.4% of Saudi Arabia's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 5.9% for Tunisia.

Is Saudi Arabia or Tunisia growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +72% against 2018-21 for Saudi Arabia, and +7% for Tunisia.

Which has more open access research, Saudi Arabia or Tunisia?

57% of Saudi Arabia's research is free to read, against 33% of Tunisia's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Saudi Arabia or Tunisia?

Saudi Arabia holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Tunisia 0; in the top 1,000 it is 2 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%.

Saudi Arabia

  1. 1King Abdullah University of Science and Technology17.4% top 10% · 5.7k works
  2. 2King Abdulaziz University13.8% top 10% · 11k works
  3. 3University of Business and Technology22.6% top 10% · 2k works
  4. 4King Saud University14.1% top 10% · 20k works
  5. 5Ministry of Education19.1% top 10% · 655 works
  6. 6King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals16.9% top 10% · 7.2k works

Tunisia

  1. 1Manouba University9.9% top 10% · 1.3k works
  2. 2Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique de Tunisie3.4% top 10% · 1.3k works
  3. 3University of Sousse7.3% top 10% · 2.5k works
  4. 4University of Jendouba11.4% top 10% · 578 works
  5. 5University of Sfax8.3% top 10% · 5.2k works
  6. 6University of Gabès6.7% top 10% · 1.6k 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.

Saudi Arabia

  1. 1 Xuping Sun #352 worldwide 82k citations · 678 works
  2. 2 Arunodaya Raj Mishra #507 worldwide 9.8k citations · 215 works
  3. 3 Osman M. Bakr #703 worldwide 62k citations · 539 works
  4. 4 Mohamed Eddaoudi #1,507 worldwide 97k citations · 772 works
  5. 5 Pratibha Rani #1,724 worldwide 8.6k citations · 204 works

Tunisia

  1. 1 Naima Lassoued #58,759 worldwide 1.6k citations · 79 works
  2. 2 Imen Khanchel #94,831 worldwide 1.6k citations · 78 works
  3. 3 Karim Rejeb #97,324 worldwide 6.2k citations · 80 works
  4. 4 Khaled Mokni #103,833 worldwide 2.5k citations · 70 works
  5. 5 Anis Chaouachi #111,304 worldwide 10k citations · 146 works

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