The influence of missing publications on the Hirsch index

Ronald Rousseau

Journal of Informetrics, 2007, vol. 1, issue 1, 2-7

Abstract: We show that usually the influence on the Hirsch index of missing highly cited articles is much smaller than the number of missing articles. This statement is shown by a combinatorial argument. We further show, by using a continuous power law model, that the influence of missing articles is largest when the total number of publications is small, and non-existing when the number of publications is very large. The same conclusion can be drawn for missing citations. Hence, the h-index is resilient to missing articles and to missing citations.

Keywords: Hirsch index; Influence of missing data; Power law model; Robustness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:infome:v:1:y:2007:i:1:p:2-7

DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2006.05.001

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