Science Explorer Back to mapMap
Compare · Countries

Sierra Leone vs Timor-Leste

On research quality in 2022-now, Sierra Leone ranks #112 in the world and Timor-Leste #162, of 189 countries. Sierra Leone stands higher in 2 of the 2 fields both publish in, Timor-Leste in 0.

Research profiles alike: 0.87very similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

Compare other countries
vs

Sierra Leone

World rank, 2022-now
#112
#98 all time
Works, 2022-now
1.1k
fractional
Top-10% rate
6.6%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
68%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Horticulture, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Development.

Timor-Leste

World rank, 2022-now
#162
#182 all time
Works, 2022-now
673
fractional
Top-10% rate
5.1%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
83%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Linguistics and Language, Law, Human Factors and Ergonomics.

Who leads, measure by measure?

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

Sierra Leone 51 level3 Timor-Leste
  1. #112Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#162
  2. 0.93×Excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.66×
  3. 1.1kOutputfractional works, 2022-now673
  4. 6.6%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited5.1%
  5. 8.9Citations per workall time, per fractional work2.7
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 68%Open accessof its works free to read, all time83%
  8. 39%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time46%
  9. +104%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, excellence and the top-10% rate are explained in the methodology.

Who leads in each field?

Sierra Leone stands higher in 2 of 2 fields, Timor-Leste in 0. Sierra Leone leads most in Social Sciences (#107 against #111). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Sierra Leone 20 Timor-Leste
  1. #99Medicine-
  2. #107Social Sciences#111

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 Sierra Leone rankTimor-Leste rank Sierra Leone top 10%Timor-Leste top 10% Sierra Leone worksTimor-Leste works
Medicine #99 - 8.7% - 209 -
Social Sciences #107 #111 5.1% 6.6% 209 258

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.

Sierra Leone

▲ 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. Epidemiology78▲ 1.48×79 topics
  2. Economic Growth68▲ 6.3×21 topics
  3. Climate Change66▲ 1.86×62 topics
  4. Globalization59▲ 2.3×48 topics
  5. Sustainability56▲ 1.76×50 topics
  6. Public Health45▲ 2.4×40 topics
  7. Environmental Impact41▲ 1.83×44 topics
  8. Fiscal Policy40▲ 15×6 topics
  9. Vaccine38▲ 7.3×10 topics
  10. Maternal Mortality37▲ 13×5 topics
  11. Governance36▲ 8.5×9 topics
  12. Pathogenesis36▲ 5.4×18 topics
  13. Immune Response36▲ 4.8×12 topics
  14. Community Health Workers35▲ 30×2 topics
  15. Health Inequalities34▲ 21×3 topics
  16. Poverty Reduction33▲ 19×5 topics
  17. Child Mortality32▲ 34×1 topic
  18. Health Systems32▲ 34×1 topic
  19. Institutional Quality31▲ 23×2 topics
  20. Economic Development30▲ 2.9×20 topics
  21. Risk Management30▲ 4.8×10 topics
  22. Infectious Diseases28▲ 6.4×8 topics
  23. Smallholder Farmers28▲ 10×5 topics
  24. Genetic Diversity27▲ 4.7×17 topics
  25. Regulation26▲ 3.8×11 topics
  26. Transmission26▲ 36×3 topics
  27. Outbreak24▲ 49×2 topics
  28. Adaptation24▲ 6.2×7 topics
  29. Ebola Virus24▲ 65×1 topic
  30. Reservoirs24▲ 65×1 topic
  31. ICT22▲ 13×3 topics
  32. Corruption22▲ 11×6 topics
  33. Gender Equality21▲ 5.8×11 topics
  34. Global Burden of Disease21▲ 6.4×4 topics
  35. Monetary Policy21▲ 6.6×7 topics
  36. Inequality20▲ 6.8×5 topics
  37. Global Health20▲ 9.6×4 topics
  38. Finance20▲ 8.1×3 topics
  39. Inclusive Development19▲ 33×2 topics
  40. Knowledge Economy18▲ 13×2 topics

Timor-Leste

▲ 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. Globalization46▲ 3.0×53 topics
  2. Community Empowerment46▲ 8.2×12 topics
  3. Sustainability38▲ 2.0×54 topics
  4. Health Education36▲ 11×10 topics
  5. Sustainable Development32▲ 2.7×34 topics
  6. Human Rights31▲ 4.0×26 topics
  7. Neoliberalism30▲ 11×11 topics
  8. Education29▲ 2.2×49 topics
  9. Corporate Governance29▲ 5.1×14 topics
  10. Social Justice28▲ 6.0×22 topics
  11. Non-Communicable Diseases25▲ 12×3 topics
  12. Maternal Health24▲ 12×4 topics
  13. Environmental Law24▲ 15×6 topics
  14. COVID-1924▲ 2.4×18 topics
  15. Educational Technology24▲ 2.6×24 topics
  16. Social Media24▲ 2.2×19 topics
  17. Breastfeeding24▲ 13×2 topics
  18. Public Health Policy23▲ 12×2 topics
  19. Peacebuilding23▲ 44×4 topics
  20. Child Nutrition23▲ 16×1 topic
  21. Stunting23▲ 16×1 topic
  22. Indonesia22▲ 6.6×5 topics
  23. Economic Development22▲ 3.6×19 topics
  24. Criminal Justice22▲ 13×6 topics
  25. Local Turn21▲ 180×1 topic
  26. Resilience Governance21▲ 180×1 topic
  27. Community Participation21▲ 7.8×8 topics
  28. Colonialism19▲ 5.1×14 topics
  29. Economic Impact18▲ 4.3×7 topics
  30. Child Development18▲ 5.5×8 topics
  31. International Law17▲ 6.9×9 topics
  32. Islamic Banking16▲ 5.6×3 topics
  33. Healthcare Access15▲ 7.0×7 topics
  34. Governance14▲ 5.7×8 topics
  35. Patient Satisfaction14▲ 5.8×6 topics
  36. Restorative Justice14▲ 13×3 topics
  37. Patient Experience13▲ 16×3 topics
  38. Corruption13▲ 10×5 topics
  39. Organizational Behavior13▲ 11×2 topics
  40. Legal Pluralism12▲ 20×3 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?

Sierra Leone has out-published Timor-Leste every year since 2001.

still counting200400Sierra Leone311 in 2025Timor-Leste260 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 counting0.0050%0.010%0.015%Sierra Leone0.0053% in 2025Timor-Leste0.0044% 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%Sierra Leone8.3% in 2025Timor-Leste4.8% in 202520102020

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.

Sierra Leone 05 level0 Timor-Leste
  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, Sierra Leone or Timor-Leste?

Sierra Leone publishes 1.6× as much research as Timor-Leste in 2022-now (1.1k against 673 fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Sierra Leone or Timor-Leste?

6.6% of Sierra Leone's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 5.1% for Timor-Leste.

Is Sierra Leone or Timor-Leste growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +194% against 2018-21 for Timor-Leste, and +104% for Sierra Leone.

Which has more open access research, Sierra Leone or Timor-Leste?

83% of Timor-Leste's research is free to read, against 68% of Sierra Leone's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Sierra Leone or Timor-Leste?

Sierra Leone holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Timor-Leste 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%.

Sierra Leone

  1. 1University of Sierra Leone5.1% top 10% · 501 works
  2. 2Njala University6.9% top 10% · 307 works
  3. 3University of Makeni5.7% top 10% · 66 works
  4. 4Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute7.9% top 10% · 73 works

Timor-Leste

  1. 1Universidade da Paz6.1% top 10% · 342 works
  2. 2National University of East Timor4.0% top 10% · 330 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.

Sierra Leone

  1. 1 Haja Ramatulai Wurie #161,092 worldwide 2.4k citations · 68 works
  2. 2 Amara Jambai #176,221 worldwide 3.4k citations · 97 works
  3. 3 Rashid Ansumana #239,551 worldwide 4.4k citations · 163 works
  4. 4 Abdul Salami Bah #270,549 worldwide 111 citations · 29 works
  5. 5 Augustus Osborne #296,042 worldwide 4k citations · 162 works

Timor-Leste

  1. 1 João Soares Martins #225,608 worldwide 3.1k citations · 53 works
  2. 2 Seguito Monteiro #2,276,815 worldwide 36 citations · 24 works
  3. 3 Salvador Amaral #2,597,992 worldwide 499 citations · 46 works
  4. 4 Juvinal Ximenes Guterres #2,767,071 worldwide 24 citations · 14 works
  5. 5 Joanita Bendita da Costa Jong #2,958,778 worldwide 368 citations · 23 works