The success-index: an alternative approach to the h-index for evaluating an individual’s research output

Fiorenzo Franceschini (), Maurizio Galetto, Domenico Maisano and Luca Mastrogiacomo
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Fiorenzo Franceschini: Politecnico di Torino
Maurizio Galetto: Politecnico di Torino
Domenico Maisano: Politecnico di Torino
Luca Mastrogiacomo: Politecnico di Torino

Scientometrics, 2012, vol. 92, issue 3, No 7, 641 pages

Abstract: Abstract Among the most recent bibliometric indicators for normalizing the differences among fields of science in terms of citation behaviour, Kosmulski (J Informetr 5(3):481–485, 2011) proposed the NSP (number of successful paper) index. According to the authors, NSP deserves much attention for its great simplicity and immediate meaning—equivalent to those of the h-index—while it has the disadvantage of being prone to manipulation and not very efficient in terms of statistical significance. In the first part of the paper, we introduce the success-index, aimed at reducing the NSP-index’s limitations, although requiring more computing effort. Next, we present a detailed analysis of the success-index from the point of view of its operational properties and a comparison with the h-index’s ones. Particularly interesting is the examination of the success-index scale of measurement, which is much richer than the h-index’s. This makes success-index much more versatile for different types of analysis—e.g., (cross-field) comparisons of the scientific output of (1) individual researchers, (2) researchers with different seniority, (3) research institutions of different size, (4) scientific journals, etc.

Keywords: Successful paper; NSP-index; Field normalization; Reference practices; Operational properties; Hirsch index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-011-0570-z

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