H-index

The h-index also called sometimes the Hirsch index or Hirsch number is an index that quantifies both the actual scientific productivity and the apparent scientific impact of a scientist. The h-index is based on the set of the scientist's most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other people's publications.

The h-index can also be applied to the productivity and impact of a group of scientists, such as a department or university or country. The h-index was suggested by Jorge E. Hirsch, a physicist at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), as a tool for determining theoretical physicists' relative quality.

Hirsch suggested that, for physicists, a value for h of about :
  • h-index = 10-12 might be a typical value for advancement to associate professor,
  • h-index >= 18 might be a typical value for advancement to full professor,

Definition

The h-index is based on the distribution of citations received by a given researcher's publications. Hirsch writes:
"A scientist has index h if h of his Np papers have at least h citations each, and the other (Np-h) papers have at most h citations each".

In other words, a scholar with an index of h has published h papers each of which has been cited by others at least h times. Thus, the h-index reflects both the number of publications and the number of citations per publication. The index is designed to improve upon simpler measures such as the total number of citations or publications.

The h-index works properly only for comparing scientists working in the same field; citation conventions differ widely among different fields.

For more information, read the paper :
J.E. Hirsch, "An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output",PNAS review, November 15, vol. 102, no. 46, pp. 16569–16572, 2005.

Calculate your h-index






I've tried my h-index

  • Scopus gives h-index = 12 (January 2013)

    • General analysis :here

Journal Impact Factor

Journal Impact Factor is the measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a given period of time. The impact factor for a journal is calculated based on a 3 years period, and can be considered to be the average number of times published papers are cited up to 2 years after publication.
For example, the impact factor 2010 for a journal would be calculated as follows:
A = the number of times papers published in 2008-9 were cited in indexed journals during 2010
B = the number of articles, reviews, proceedings or notes published in 2008-2009
Impact Factor 2010 = A/B

Here below you will find impact factors for indexed journals: