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Author’s H-Index

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Author’s H-Index

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The H-index was developed by J.E. Hirsch.

The H-index is based on a list of publications ranked in descending order by the times cited. The value of h is equal to the number of papers (n) in a list that has n or more citations. The H-index is calculated by the number of publications and the number of citations. For example, an H-index of 20 means there are 20 items, that have 20 citations or more.

J. E. Hirsch. An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. PNAS November 15, 2005 vol. 102 no. 46

Useful Links

Sources

Scopus is one of the most comprehensive databases. It covers more than 22,000 journal titles and many options to narrow down the search results (by keywords, years, affiliation and more). The database is used as a citation index tool and for citation analysis.

In Scopus, the H-index is dynamic and it is recalculated in real-time whenever you view it.

The H-index includes citations from expanded book coverage.

More about H-index from Scopus.

As a multidisciplinary database, Web of Science provides broad coverage and is a standard tool for citation indexing and analysis in academic institutions worldwide.

In Web of Science, the H-index is automatically calculated from the indexed publications in the database, which includes scholarly articles, conference proceedings, and other types of academic work.  It is updated in real-time as new articles and citations are added to the database.

More about h-index from WoS.

Google Scholar is ​the most comprehensive database for academic literature.
The h-index on Google Scholar is automatically updated whenever new citations are added.

Considerations

The average H-Index depends on the collection policy of the source.

The value for the H-index depends on source’s content and coverage.

WOS

  • The citation data is only for records indexed by the database.
  • Limited number of journals.
  • European bias.
  • Calculates the H-index of an author from 1965 – current.
  • Limited number of journals in non-English languages.
  • Clear results from scholarly journals.
  • “In press” articles are not indexed because of editorial policy.
  • Self-citations exclusion option.
  • Access via subscription.

SCOPUS

  • The citation data is only for records indexed by the database.
  • More content (about 22,000 journals) than in WOS (about 12,000 journals).
  • American bias.
  • Calculates the H-index of an author from 1996 – current.
  • Scopus Cited References Expansion Program ensures cited references going back to 1970 will be added to pre-1996 Scopus content in the fourth quarter of 2014.
  • Limited number of journals in non-English languages.
  • Clear results from scholarly journals.
  • One version of a paper in the results.
  • “In press” articles are included.
  • Self-citations exclusion option.
  • Access via subscription.

GOOGLE SCHOLAR

  • Google Scholar includes publications from journals that may not be indexed in WOS or Scopus.
  • Google Scholar indexes a larger number of journals than WOS and Scopus, though not all are scholarly.
  • Larger number of publications in non-English languages compared to WOS and Scopus.
  • The value of the H-index may vary because of additional irrelevant citations results from non-scholarly citations (records from unknown sources and informal material).
  • Not all of journals are of the same quality as those found in Web of Science or Scopus.
  • In some cases, Google Scholar indexes  both the preprint and  the journal versions of a paper and provides the sum of the two counts, so citations are spread over the duplicates.
  • Provides an H-index only for researchers who created a user profile for themselves.
  • Counts self-citations.
  • Free access.

CITESEERX

  • CiteSeerX focuses primarily on the literature in computer and information science.
  • Uses ACI (Autonomous citation indexing) to automatically extract citations and create a citation index.
  • Computes citation statistics and related documents for all articles cited in the database, not just the indexed articles.

The optimal methodology to value the H-index for researchers is to consult Google Scholar in addition to Web of Science or Scopus.

Different disciplines have different standards for citations.

It is unfair to compare the H-index of researchers working in different disciplines:

  • Disciplines that use more references per paper are expected to have a higher index.
  • Researchers in niche fields may have a lower H-index compared to those in more widely studied or trending disciplines.
  • Coverage in different disciplines is not the same in different sources:
    • Journals indexed in the WOS cover mainly the core disciplines in the natural sciences.
    • WOS and Scopus indexing does not provide sufficient coverage for fields like computer science or engineering science.
    • Google Scholar’s coverage in disciplines such as biology, chemistry and physics, is lower compared to Web of Science (WOS) or Scopus. However, Google Scholar provides broader coverage for the four social science disciplines—education, economics, sociology, and psychology—as well as computing, compared to  both WOS and Scopus.
    • The number of Google Scholar citations for mathematicians and computer scientists is higher than that in Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus, but lower for high-energy physicists.

Variations or errors in name spelling should be taken into consideration:

  • Various spellings of an author’s name.
  • Differently formatted names in one source.
  • Alternative names for an author (e.g. a former surname).
  • Typing errors.
  • Merging author profiles for two different authors who share the same name.

The Author ID (author identification) provides a unique number for every author and helps find and recognize a specific author and avoid confusions.

The most commonly used Author Identifiers are: ORCID ID (Open Researcher & Contributor ID), Scopus Author ID (Elsevier), Web of Science ResearcherID (Clarivate). More about Author Identifiers

Some tools (e.g., SCOPUS) have a filter that excludes self-citations, while others do not and require manual filtering.

Researchers with a few highly cited papers may have a low H-index if their other works receive fewer citations, despite making significant contributions to their field.

Researchers with short publishing careers might appear disadvantaged by a low H-indexes, even though their impact in a discipline may be high.

Instructions

    • From your profile
      • Log in with your Google account and click ‘My Profile’ at the top of the  Google Scholar homepage.
      • Click on the search symbol on the right side of the page and type the last name and initials of the author in the search field.
      • Click the search button (note: Google Scholar provides an H-index only for researchers who created a user profile for themselves).
      • Click the name of the author.
        The following screen will display the H-index of the author, according to the items indexed within Google Scholar.
    • By ‘Advanced Search’
      • Go to ‘Advanced Search’ and enter the full name or last name and initials of the author in the ‘Return articles authored by’ field and click ‘Search’.
      • Click on the name of the author.
        The following screen will display the H-index of the author.
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