Criticism on the hg-index

Fiorenzo Franceschini () and Domenico Maisano
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Fiorenzo Franceschini: Politecnico di Torino
Domenico Maisano: Politecnico di Torino

Scientometrics, 2011, vol. 86, issue 2, No 9, 339-346

Abstract: Abstract Although composition of bibliometric indicators appears to be desirable, in many cases it may be misleading. After a brief introduction on the properties of scales of measurement, the attention of this communication is focused on a recent composite indicator, the hg-index, suggested by Alonso et al. (Scientometrics 82(2):391–400, 2010). Specifically, hg-index has three major criticalities: (1) the hg scale is the result of a composition of the h- and g-indices, which are defined both on ordinal scales, (2) the equivalence classes of hg are questionable and the substitution rate between h and g may arbitrarily change depending on the specific h and g values, (3) the apparent increase in granularity of hg, with respect to h and g, is illusory and misleading. Argument is supported by several examples.

Keywords: Bibliometrics; hg-index; h-index; g-index; Indicator composition; Composite indicator; Scales of measurement; Ordinal scale; Scale granularity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-010-0261-1

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