Evaluating research institutions: the potential of the success-index

Fiorenzo Franceschini (), Domenico Maisano () and Luca Mastrogiacomo
Additional contact information
Fiorenzo Franceschini: Politecnico di Torino
Domenico Maisano: Politecnico di Torino
Luca Mastrogiacomo: Politecnico di Torino

Scientometrics, 2013, vol. 96, issue 1, No 7, 85-101

Abstract: Abstract Similarly to the h-index and other indicators, the success-index is a recent indicator that makes it possible to identify, among a general group of papers, those of greater citation impact. This indicator implements a field-normalization at the level of single paper and can therefore be applied to multidisciplinary groups of articles. Also, it is very practical for normalizations aimed at achieving the so-called size-independency. Thanks to these (and other) properties, this indicator is particularly versatile when evaluating the publication output of entire research institutions. This paper exemplifies the potential of the success-index by means of several practical applications, respectively: (i) comparison of groups of researchers within the same scientific field, but affiliated with different universities, (ii) comparison of different departments of the same university, and (iii) comparison of entire research institutions. A sensitivity analysis will highlight the success-index’s robustness. Empirical results suggest that the success-index may be conveniently extended to large-scale assessments, i.e., involving a large number of researchers and research institutions.

Keywords: Success-index; Hirsch index; Field normalization; Citation propensity; Groups of researchers; Research institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-012-0887-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:scient:v:96:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-012-0887-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11192

DOI: 10.1007/s11192-012-0887-2

Access Statistics for this article

Scientometrics is currently edited by Wolfgang Glänzel

More articles in Scientometrics from Springer, Akadémiai Kiadó
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().