In 2024, Spain maintained its ninth place in the world in terms of scientific publication output, according to Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR), although the number of publications generated in the country actually increased by 2.86% to 126,393 documents. Among these, the number of citable documents was 115,233, with a total of 131,281 citations. The absolute ranking was led by China, the United States, India and the United Kingdom.

In the European Union, Spain ranks third behind Germany and Italy (fifth and sixth in the world ranking) and ahead of France., iIt has in addition been ranked 11^th in the world since 1996 and has managed to surpass the two million publications barrier, with 1.94 million citable documents being cited more than 5.2 million times by 2024.

Third position in arts and humanities
In terms of subject area, Spain ranks third in the field of arts and humanities, a position it has held since 2022. It also retains fourth place in social sciences, sixth in health professions and nursing, and seventh in agriculture and life sciences and psychology. In total, the country has improved in 10 areas and maintains its position in 12^th place.

In 2024 Spain climbed one place in chemical engineering, environmental science, materials science, medicine, neuroscience and veterinary science, two places in economics, econometrics and finance, engineering and pharmacology, toxicology and pharmacy, and three places in energy.

Over 5,000 publishers
The SJR ranking of scientific publications is based on the Scopus database, the most comprehensive database in the world, which analyses over 34,000 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers, including coverage of 16,500 journals.

Various indicators are used to generate the ranking, from the number of documents published and included in the Scopus database to the citations and references obtained. In total, it analyses 27 subject areas and 313 categories. The latest edition covers 236 countries, two more than in 2023.

^{Photo: SJR}