What do we know about the h index?

Lutz Bornmann () and Hans‐Dieter Daniel

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2007, vol. 58, issue 9, 1381-1385

Abstract: Jorge Hirsch (2005a, 2005b) recently proposed the h index to quantify the research output of individual scientists. The new index has attracted a lot of attention in the scientific community. The claim that the h index in a single number provides a good representation of the scientific lifetime achievement of a scientist as well as the (supposed) simple calculation of the h index using common literature databases lead to the danger of improper use of the index. We describe the advantages and disadvantages of the h index and summarize the studies on the convergent validity of this index. We also introduce corrections and complements as well as single‐number alternatives to the h index.

Date: 2007
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jamist:v:58:y:2007:i:9:p:1381-1385

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