h index: Benchmark of productivity and impact of researcher

Indices of Research - II:
h-Index
Dr Mona Semalty
openknowledgeok@gmail.com
Video URL: https://youtu.be/BAhPzxWVtVE

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Why we do the research?
What is the benchmark of success
for a researcher?

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International License.
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h-Index
• We do the research
…….To produce knowledge/ product/service  Productivity
…….To disseminate our knowledge in research fraternity  Impact
• So a researcher is recognized for his productivity (e.g. number of
papers) and impact (e.g. number of citations).
• The h-index (sometimes called the Hirsch index or Hirsch number) is
an author-level metric that attempts to measure both
the productivity and citation impact of the publications of
a scientist or scholar. (Wikipedia)
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5
• The h index measures simultaneously the quality and quantity
of scientific output.
• So h index was the solution given by a physicist of University of
California, San Diego Jorge E. Hirsch in 2005, as a tool for
determining theoretical physicists' relative quality.
• Later it is used for assessing productivity and impact of a
researcher/ research group/ institution.
• It’s an index which increases on the basis of citations and
number of papers continuously with the passage of time.

How ?
• h- index is the number of papers (of a person/
group or institution) with citation number
equal or greater than h (Hirsch, 2005).
• (The definition of the index is that a scholar with an index of h has published h papers each of
which has been cited in other papers at least h times. Thus, the h-index reflects both the
number of publications and the number of citations per publication.)
• For example if a researcher’s h index is 20, it
means that out of his/her publications each
20 papers are cited 20 or more times.

WHO? : h-index
Automatic calculators (Citation databases)
• Web of Science
• Scopus
• Google scholar
(Books, foreign language journals, patents and offline journals are not
indexed / covered)
Manual calculation
The h-index can also be manually determined using citation databases.
* When mentioning the h index in your CV or in grant applications do
not forget to mention the source database of the same.

h-index depends on
• No. of papers published and citations
• Subject and Field of research
• Presence of articles in impact and accessible
journals
• Stage of career
• Miscellaneous factors: Type of papers
(methodological papers/ review papers),
innovative research etc.

h-index in Academic Recognition
In general higher the h index greater the researcher (in terms of
productivity and citation impact).
It’s a direct and simple measure of comparing the potential of scientists
of same field.
In biomedical sciences:
h index < no. of years of experience  Average/ Below Average
Researcher
h index = no. of years of experience  Successful Researcher
h index > no. of years of experience  Outstanding/ Unique Researcher

Hirsch’s Observations: Career levels
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Hirsch (Scientist
Performance
after 20 years)
h index Level of Scientist
20 Successful
40 Outstanding
60 Truly unique
• Source: Wikipedia

h-index: Disciplines and career levels
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Observer/ subject h index Inference
Hirsch (for physicist) 12 Advancement to tenure (Associate Professor)
at major research universities
18 Full professorship
15–20 Fellowship in the American Physical Society
45 or higher Membership in the United States National
Academy of Sciences
London School of
Economics (Social Sciences)
2.8 (in law), A full professor in the social sciences had an
h-index about twice that of a lecturer or a
senior lecturer, though the difference was the
smallest in geography
3.4 (in political science),
3.7 (in sociology),
6.5 (in geography),
7.6 (in economics)
• Source: Wikipedia

Limitations
• Databases coverage differ in publication sources
and time range.
• Can be used only for comparing the same career
stage and discipline.
• H index increases only and does not elicit the
current impact/ potential of researcher.
• It invariably increases even if author has stopped
research/publications.
12

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Concluding Remark
• Get known by h index (Add it to your CV )
• Higher h index = more productivity and impact
• h index is the major benchmark used by the
employers for selection/recruitment and/ or
assessment of Researchers.
• Higher h index is also an indicator of credibility of
authors and it improves the confidence of
readers and researchers following the authors.

Bibliography/Further readings
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index
• Hirsch JE, An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Nov 15; 102(46):
16569–16572.
• Judit Bar-Ilan, Which h-index? — A comparison of WoS, Scopus and Google Scholar, Scientometrics, 2008; 74(2): 257- 71.
• http://www.pnas.org/content/102/46/16569.full.pdf
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmnqCge-h_M
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ_pur-kVpo
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQKPWo9qK7s&t=3s
• Bornmann L, Daniel HD, What do we know about the h index?, Journal of the Association for Information Science &
Technology, 2007; 58(9): 1381–1385
• Glänzel W, On the H‐index—a mathematical approach to a new measure of publication activity and citation impact.
Scientometrics, 2006; 67: 315–321
• Semalty M, Semalty A, Essentials of Research: A Mini Guide, 2012, ISBN 978-3-659-30545-0, LAP Lambert Academic
Publishing, Saarbrucken, Deutschland, Germany.
• Semalty et al. Art of Writing and Publishing in Pharmaceutical Journals, 2007, ISBN 81-88449-21-0, Pharma Book
Syndicate, Hyderabad, India.
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We will be back with other research indices soon….
Stay tuned for more educational videos……
Thank you for viewing……
This Video is available on YouTube https://youtu.be/BAhPzxWVtVE
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Knowledge) for forthcoming videos…….
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17
The OK Team
Dr. Ajay Semalty[M Pharm, PGDOM, MBA (OM), Ph D]
Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
H.N.B. Garhwal University
Srinagar Garhwal-246174
INDIA
Visiting Scientist: Meijo University , Nagoya, Japan.
semaltyajay@gmail.com
Dr. Mona Semalty [M Pharm, PGDOM, MBA (OM), Ph D]
Assistant Professor
INDIA
monasemalty@gmail.com
Mr Lokesh Adhikari (M. Pharm (Pharmaceutics), Ph D (pursuing)
INDIA
research.lokesh@gmail.com

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