BeckerGuides: Tools for Authors: What is the h index? (2024)

The h index was proposed by J.E. Hirsch in 2005 and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.[i] The h index is a quantitative metric based on analysis of publication data using publications and citations to provide “an estimate of the importance, significance, and broad impact of a scientist’s cumulative research contributions.”[ii] According to Hirsch, the h index is defined as: “A scientist has index h if h of his or her Np papers have at least h citations each and the other (Np – h) papers have ≤h citations each.”

How Calculated: Number of papers (h) that have received at least h citations.

As an example, an h index of 10 means that among all publications by one author, 10 of these publications have received at least 10 citations each.

Hirsch argues that the h index is preferable to other single-number criteria, such as the total number of papers, the total number of citations and citations per paper. However, Hirsch includes several caveats:

  • A single number can never give more than a rough approximation to an individual’s multifaceted profile;
  • Other factors should be considered in combination in evaluating an individual;
  • There will be differences in typical h values in different fields, determined in part by the average number of references in a paper in the field, the average number of papers produced by each scientist in the field, and the size (number of scientists) of the field; and
  • For an author with a relatively low h that has a few seminal papers with extraordinarily high citation counts, the h index will not fully reflect that scientist’s accomplishments.[iii]

Hirsch stressed that the full career publications for an author should be used for the h index.

Since Hirsch introduced the h index in 2005, this measure of academic impact has garnered widespread interest as well as proposals for other indices based on analyses of publication data such as the g index, h (2) index, m quotient, r index, to name a few.

Several commonly used databases, such as Elsevier’s Scopus, Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science, and Google Scholar provide h index values for authors.

[i] Hirsch JE. An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 November 15; 102(46): 16569–16572. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0507655102

[ii] Ibid. p. 16569.

[iii] Ibid. p. 16571

BeckerGuides: Tools for Authors: What is the h index? (2024)

FAQs

BeckerGuides: Tools for Authors: What is the h index? ›

The h-index is calculated by counting the number of publications for which an author has been cited by other authors at least that same number of times. For instance, an h-index of 17 means that the scientist has published at least 17 papers that have each been cited at least 17 times.

What is the h-index for authors? ›

The h index is a metric for evaluating the cumulative impact of an author's scholarly output and performance; measures quantity with quality by comparing publications to citations. The h index corrects for the disproportionate weight of highly cited publications or publications that have not yet been cited.

How do I find out my h-index? ›

Find H-Index using Google Scholar

In order to be included, the researcher must sign up for an account. The h-index and i10 index values are readily available on a researcher's page, which can be retrieved by searching for their name in Google Scholar. A profile must be set to public in order for the page to be visible.

What is a good h-index score? ›

Hirsch2 was of the opinion that 20 h-index is Good,40 is Outstanding and 60 is Exceptional but after 20 years of research life. He further pointed out that approximately 84% of Physicists with Nobel Prizes had h-index of 30.

Is an h-index of 40 good? ›

What is a Good H-Index? Hirsch reckons that after 20 years of research, an h-index of 20 is good, 40 is outstanding, and 60 is truly exceptional. In his paper, Hirsch shows that successful scientists do, indeed, have high h-indices: 84% of Nobel Prize winners in physics, for example, had an h-index of at least 30.

Who has the highest h-index of all time? ›

Scientists with High H-Indexes

At the time of writing, the highest score recorded by Google Scholar is 300, by researcher Ronald C Kessler from Harvard University. JoAnn E Manson from Brigham and Women's Hospital takes second place with a score of 294.

What is a good h-index after 20 years? ›

Per Hirsch: h index of 20 after 20 years of scientific activity, characterizes a successful scientist. h index of 40 after 20 years of scientific activity, characterizes outstanding scientists, likely to be found only at the top universities or major research laboratories.

How do you solve for h-index? ›

The index is based on a list of publications ranked in descending order by the number of citations these publications received. The value of h is equal to the number of papers (N) in the list that have N or more citations. Before you can calculate your h-index, you will need a complete publication list.

How to calculate h score? ›

The H-score is a reliable metric calculated as follows: (1 × percentage of weak staining) + (2 × percentage of moderate staining) + (3 × percentage of strong staining) within the target region, ranging from 0 to 300.

What is Einstein's h-index? ›

According to Microsoft Academic Graph, Einstein has an h-index of 67, and Higgs 8.

What is the h-index for a full professor? ›

On average and good H-index for a PhD student is between 1 and 5, a postdoc between 2 and 17, an assistant professor between 4 – 35 and a full professor typically about 30+.

How do I calculate my h-index? ›

The h-index is calculated by counting the number of publications for which an author has been cited by other authors at least that same number of times. For instance, an h-index of 17 means that the scientist has published at least 17 papers that have each been cited at least 17 times.

What is a good h-index for a doctor? ›

According to Hirsch, a person with 20 years of research experience with an h-index of 20 is considered good, 40 is great, and 60 is remarkable.

What is the difference between the h-index and the I index? ›

Unlike the H-index, which considers the total number of citations across all publications, the i10-index focuses specifically on the number of publications that have received at least 10 citations each.

What is d-index vs h-index? ›

First, the h-index for each researcher is calculated, based on the number of publications and citations. Then a discipline-specific h-index: the D-index is calculated. The D-index is calculated by selecting publications only from the researcher's specific discipline.

What is a good h-index after 10 years? ›

H-index required for an academic position – Full professor?
Academic FieldEarly-stage Full Professor (1-5 years)Mid-stage Full Professor (5-10 years)
Engineering32-4040-50
Social Sciences29-3535-45
Humanities20-2626-34
Computer Science33-4040-50
3 more rows
Sep 21, 2023

Is the h-index the same as impact factor? ›

Abstract. Journal impact factor (which reflects a particular journal's quality) and H index (which reflects the number and quality of an author's publications) are two measures of research quality.

What is a good G index? ›

Hence, a g-index of 10 indicates that the top 10 publications of an author have been cited at least 100 times (102), a g-index of 20 indicates that the top 20 publications of an author have been cited 400 times (202).

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