A free alternative to ASPI's Critical Technology Tracker
World Tech Rankings is a free, open alternative to ASPI's Critical Technology Tracker. It ranks countries by their share of the most-cited research in 45 critical technologies, 2021–2025, publishes every definition and the method, and lets you download the summary table. It is independent and not affiliated with ASPI.
Data: OpenAlex, research published 2021–2025, pulled 18 October 2026. Definition version 0.5.
How the two compare
| ASPI Critical Technology Tracker | World Tech Rankings | |
|---|---|---|
| Data source | Web of Science (licensed) | OpenAlex (open) |
| Access to rankings | Paid subscription | Free; summary table downloadable |
| Technologies | 74 | 45 |
| Definitions published | Described | Every keyword and topic list, per technology |
| Off-topic papers | — | Every top paper checked for relevance |
| Home-citation test | — | For 5 technologies so far |
| Sub-areas inside each technology | — | Yes (pilot) |
| View without China and the US | — | Yes |
ASPI details from its public pages. A dash means the feature is not offered in the public material we could see.
Start here
- The leaderboard: who leads each of the 45 technologies
- Every country, every technology
- The most technologically advanced countries
- Is China ahead of the US?
- Download the data
Questions
Is ASPI's Critical Technology Tracker still free?
No. In late 2025 the Australian Strategic Policy Institute moved the tracker's data behind a paid subscription and now publishes only headline findings openly.
Is there a free alternative?
Yes, this site. Country rankings for 45 technologies are free to read and reuse with attribution, including commercially.
Do the results match ASPI's?
The order of countries broadly matches; the sizes of their shares do not. Before release, six technologies were built for the years ASPI covered; the order of the top 20 countries agreed with ASPI's at rank correlations between 0.71 and 0.95 (1.0 is identical). China's shares come out lower here, which the method page explains.
Why might the numbers differ?
ASPI uses Web of Science; this site uses OpenAlex, an open catalogue. Technology definitions, journal coverage and the handling of preprints differ. Each technology page lists its exact search and the most-cited papers it catches.