Terms of Service

These Terms of Service govern your use of the Afriranks website, rankings, reports, datasets and related services (the “Service”). By using the Service or creating an account you agree to these terms. If you use Afriranks on behalf of an organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to accept these terms for it.

Afriranks compiles and publishes continental, regional and national rankings of African countries and universities, together with country profiles, institution profiles, automated briefs and downloadable reports. Figures are recomputed regularly from public sources and may change between updates.

Published rankings, profiles and briefs are free to read. Paid plans and institutional data packages add licensed datasets, benchmarking, exports and analyst support, as described on the Plans and Data pages.

• You must provide accurate information and keep your sign in details secure.
• You are responsible for activity under your account. Tell us promptly if you suspect unauthorised use.
• You must be at least 16 years old, or the age of digital consent where you live, to create an account.

Access requests and data requests are reviewed manually. Prices shown on the site are indicative. A plan or package becomes binding only when we confirm it in writing with a final price, scope and, for data packages, a delivery date.

• Plans run for the billing period stated in your confirmation and can be renewed or ended at the end of that period.
• Invoices are payable within the terms stated on them. We may suspend paid access for overdue amounts.
• Because data packages are produced to order, fees for work already started are non refundable unless we fail to deliver what was agreed.
• Prices exclude applicable taxes unless stated otherwise.

You may read, share, quote and cite published rankings, profiles and briefs for research, teaching, journalism, policy and other non commercial purposes, provided you credit “Afriranks” and, where practical, link to the relevant page and state the date the figures were retrieved.

Datasets, exports and reports delivered under a paid plan or data package are licensed to your organisation for its internal use and for publication of findings, charts and summary figures with attribution. Unless your written confirmation says otherwise, you may not resell, sublicense or redistribute those datasets in bulk.

Afriranks is built on openly licensed public data, and those licences continue to apply to the underlying records:

• OpenAlex (publications, citations, research impact), released under CC0.
• Research Organization Registry (ROR) (institution identities and locations), released under CC0.
• World Bank Open Data (GDP, population, growth), licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Afriranks is independent and is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by these providers or by any institution or government that appears in the rankings.

You agree not to:

• scrape, crawl or bulk download the Service by automated means beyond ordinary browsing, except through access we have granted;
• interfere with, overload or attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Service or its systems;
• misrepresent Afriranks figures, alter them while presenting them as ours, or imply our endorsement;
• use the Service in breach of any law or the rights of others.

Rankings are produced automatically from third party records using a published, deterministic methodology. Source data can contain gaps, delays and errors, and indexing coverage differs between institutions and countries. Figures are provided for information and should not be treated as an official assessment, accreditation or certification of any institution or country. Please verify important figures against the original sources before relying on them for significant decisions.

The Afriranks name, logo, website design, software, scoring methodology, compiled rankings and written analysis belong to Afriranks or its licensors. Nothing in these terms transfers ownership to you. Your rights to use Afriranks content are limited to those set out in these terms or in a written confirmation from us.

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we give no warranties, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, availability or fitness for a particular purpose of the Service or its content.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Afriranks is not liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for loss of profits, revenue, data or reputation, arising from your use of the Service. Our total liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the amount you paid us for the Service in the twelve months before the claim, or USD 100 if you have not paid us. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

You may stop using the Service and ask us to close your account at any time. We may suspend or end access if you breach these terms, if required by law, or if we discontinue the Service. Sections that by their nature should survive termination, including licences already granted for delivered data, intellectual property, disclaimers and limitation of liability, continue to apply.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information and forms part of these terms.

We may update these terms from time to time. The date at the top of this page shows when they last changed. Material changes will be announced on the site or by email before they take effect. Continuing to use the Service after that means you accept the updated terms.

Questions about these terms can be sent through our customer support form.