Kavian Scientific Research Association | What is an H-index and what is its use?

Siavosh Kaviani
10 min readMay 25, 2020

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What is an H-index?
What is an H-index?

If you have just decided to pursue academic research, you must have heard of H-Index, and you may be wondering what H-Index is. An index is a measure of the level of authorship that seeks to measure the two variables of productivity and scientific effectiveness of a scientist or researcher. This index is based on the papers cited by that researcher and the number of times that articles have been referenced by other scientists.

This indicator can be used to measure the productivity and effectiveness of a scientific journal as well as a group of scientists such as scientists in a group, university or country. This index was published in 2005 by George E. Hirsch, a UCSD physicist, was presented as a tool for determining the relative quality of theoretical physicists, and is sometimes referred to as the Hirsch Index or the Hirsch Number .

What is an H-index
What is an H-index?

The diagram shows how a researcher’s H-index relates to the number of citations and articles of that researcher.

What is an H-Index and what is its purpose?

After answering the question, what is H-Index, the question is, what is the purpose of using H-Index? H-index is defined as the researcher has h-index when h is an order that has h articles published in other papers, at least h times it has been invoked. For example, an H-index of 10 means that the intended author has 10 articles for which he or she has received at least 10 citations. Therefore, H Index shows both the number of articles and the number of citations for each article. This index works well only in comparison with scientists active in a common field.

What is an H-Index and how is it calculated?

Officially, if f is a function of the number of citations for each article, we calculate the H index as follows:

We first arrange the values ​​of f in descending order, then look for the last place where f is greater than or equal to that place ( we call this value h ). For example, if we have a researcher who has 5 articles A, B, C, D, E with 3, 4, 5, 8, 10 citations, his index is 4 because the fourth article has 4 citations and the fifth article has 3 citations. Is. Conversely, if the same articles have 3, 3, 5, 8, 25 citations, then the author’s H index is 3 because the fourth article has only 3 citations.

If we subtract the function f from the highest value to the lowest value, we can calculate the H index as follows:

The Hirsch index is equivalent to the Eddington number , a measure previously used to evaluate cyclists. The H Index is an alternative to the classic Impact Factor of Magazines in evaluating the impact of a particular researcher’s research. Because the most popular articles in H Index have a share, it’s easier to determine. Hirsch has shown that h has produced higher predictions for award-winning writers such as membership in the National Academy or the Nobel Prize. H-index grows by accumulating citations why the “ age of academic “ research depends.

What is an H-Index? Automatic calculators

H Index can be manually specified using citation databases or with the help of automatic tools. Database-based databases such as Scppus and Web of Knowledge have automated calculators that provide H-index . Program Publish or Perish the h-index is calculated on the basis of inputs from Google Scholar.

Since July 2011, Google has added an H-index with auto-calculation, as well as an i10-index to its Google Scholar profile. In addition, some databases, such as INSPIRE-HEP, can automatically calculate the H index for researchers active in energy physics.

What is the most accurate H-Index calculator?

Each database will likely produce a different h value for a researcher due to differences in the coverage of scientific journals and papers. A careful study has shown that Web of Knowledge has strong coverage for journal articles but poor coverage for conference papers. The Scopus website has better coverage for conferences, but its coverage for articles published before 1996 is poor. Google Scholar has the best coverage for conferences and most magazines (not all of them), but like Scopus, its coverage is poor for pre-1990 articles.

Lack of coverage of conference papers is a particular problem for researchers in computer science, an area in which conference papers are considered an important part of scientific texts. Google Scholar has been criticized for producing “ unrealistic citations” that include counting references to gray texts, as well as non-compliance with Bowley’s logic rules when combining research information. For example, a study by Mahu and Young found that Google Scholar compared citations to Web of Knowledge and Scopus by 50 percent, but the study found that there was no significant change in people’s relative rankings.

What are the important criteria for comparing researchers based on the H-Index?

In comparing the results between individuals, one should consider (a) the job stage, (b) the frequency of publication of the article in that scientific field, and © the frequency of citations in that field of research. The higher the job level, the more articles will be published, which will naturally take longer to receive citations. The number of articles by an author or co-author varies greatly each year. The number of citations to an article in a year also varies, especially given the speed with which it is handled. Ultimately, even if the mean is equal, the distribution of citations between individuals, articles, and 2 will vary over time.

What is an H-index?
What is an H-index?

Hirsch made the suggestion that for physicists, the value of h at approximately 12 may be an exemplary indicator of the rate of progress for permanent employment (as an associate professor) in most research universities. An approximate value of 18 can be a good average for a master’s degree, a value between 15–20 can be a good average for a fellowship in the American Physical Society, and a score of 45 or higher can be a good average for a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Hirsch also identified the top ten indexes in the natural sciences for the most prominent scientists in 1982–2003: H (descending order h ) Salomon H. Cinderella with value h = 191 ; David Baltimore with h = 160 ; Robert C. Gallo with value h = 154 ; Pierre Chambon with value h = 153 ; Brett Woglstein with h = 151 ; Salvador Moncada with h = 143 ; Charles E. Dinarlo with h = 138 ; Tadamitsu Kishimoto with h = 134 ; Ronald M. Evans with value h = 127 ; And Axel Ulrich with h = 120 .

H-Index differences in different disciplines

Among the 22 disciplines listed on the Thomson Rutters Essential Science Indicators , Physics is the second most widely cited science after space science. Between January 1, 2000, and February 28, 2010, a physicist was required to receive 2,073 citations to become the world’s top 1% physicist. The limits set for space science are the highest of all sciences (2236 citations), followed by physics, clinical medicine (2011), and biology and molecular genetics (1229). Most disciplines, such as Environment / Ecology (390), have fewer researchers, fewer articles, and fewer citations. So the limits set for these disciplines in Essential Science IndicatorsIt is also lower. The lowest citations for authorship are among the top 1% in the field, Social Sciences (154), Computer Science (149) and Interdisciplinary Sciences (147).

These figures are very different in other areas: The Social Science Influence Team at the London School of Economics has found that social scientists in the UK have a lower average HH index. H Index for professors (all) based on Google Scholar data is in the range of 2.8 (salary), 3.4 (political science), 3.7 (sociology), 5.6 (geography) and 6.7 (economics) Had. On average, in all disciplines, H Index was a professor of social sciences twice as much as H Index, a teacher or a senior instructor, however, there was the slightest difference in geography.

What is an H-index?
What is an H-index?

What are the benefits of H-Index?

Hirsch’s goal in presenting the H Index was to address the main drawbacks of other bibliographic features, such as the total number of articles or the total number of citations. The total number of articles is not taken into account in the quality of scientific articles, while participating in a single article with high impact (for example, methodological articles that provide new and successful techniques, methods, and approximations and can generate higher citations), or having a number Too many articles with a low citation value for each can have an disproportionate and irrelevant effect on the total number of citations. The goal of H Index is to simultaneously measure the quality and quantity of a scientific output.

What are the criticisms of the H-Index?

In some cases, HTIX may generate misleading information about a scientific output. However, most of these situations are not limited to HD index and may be present in other comparative parameters:

- H Index does not take into account the usual number of citations in different areas of research in its calculations. In general, citation behavior is influenced by factors related to the field of study, which may lead to invalid comparisons not only in different fields but also in different fields of study of a particular field.

- H Index deletes the information in the author’s place in the list of authors that are important in some scientific fields.

- A study has shown that H Index works in the correctness and accuracy of prediction, weaker than the simplest criterion of average citations for each article. However, this finding was refuted in another study by Hirsch.

- H-index can be manipulated by referring to your articles, and if it is based on Google Scholar output, then even computer-generated citations can be used to achieve this goal.

What are H-Index alternatives and what corrections are needed?

https://ksra.eu/what-is-an-h-index/
What is an H-index?

Various suggestions have been made to modify the H-index in order to emphasize different features. Most of the offers have a lot to do with the original h-index, however indices may decide to replace the CV of (Resumeparser) are similarly important, as is the case in most assessment processes.

- The H Index Index parameter normalized by the number of authors is also provided, which may not be easily accepted due to its complexity.

- M index is defined as h / n , in which n is equal to the number of years elapsed since the publication of the first article by the researcher, and my ratio is also read.

- Several models have been proposed to be added to the relative share of each author in a sample article, by calculating the rank of the respective author in the authors classification.

- The generalization of H Index and some other indicators that provide additional information about the form of the author’s citation function have also been suggested.

- A relevant index is also provided for institutions and organizations. Thus, a scientific institute has a sequential index of type Hirsch i when at least i researchers from this institute have an H index equal to the minimum value of i .

- Thirty Index considers not only citations, but also the quality of citations based on the collaboration gap between citation and citation authors. Thirty indexes for one researcher means that n is the case for N citations by authors who are within the minimum collaboration n and the other ( Nn ) is the remaining citations from authors who have the maximum collaboration distance.

- S Index has been proposed with reference to non-European distribution of citations and has shown very good correlation with H Index.

- The i10-index shows the number of academic articles an author has had at least 10 citations from other articles. The index was introduced by Google in July 2011 as part of Google Scholar.

  • It has been proven that H Index has a strong direction. However, simple normalization using an average value of h for researchers active in d is an effective way to reduce this orientation and leads to the achievement of a global impact criterion that allows researchers to be compared in different disciplines. Of course, this method does not improve the effect of academic age.

About KSR@ reseach association

The Kavian Scientific Research Association (KSRA) is a non-profit research organization to provide research / educational services in December 2013. The members of the community had formed a virtual group on the Viber social network. The core of the Kavian Scientific Association was formed with these members as founders. These individuals, led by Professor Siavash Kaviani, decided to launch a scientific / research association with an emphasis on education.

KSRA research association, as a non-profit research firm, is committed to providing research services in the field of knowledge. The main beneficiaries of this association are public or private knowledge-based companies, students, researchers, researchers, professors, universities, and industrial and semi-industrial centers around the world.

Our main services Based on Education for all spectrums people in the world. We want to make an integration between researches and educations. We believe education is the main right of Human beings. So our services should be concentrated on inclusive education.

The KSRA team partners with local under-served communities around the world to improve the access to and quality of knowledge based on education, amplify and augment learning programs where they exist, and create new opportunities for e-learning where traditional education systems are lacking or non-existent.

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Siavosh Kaviani
Siavosh Kaviani

Written by Siavosh Kaviani

Professor Siavosh Kaviani was born in 1961 in Tehran. He had a professorship. He holds a Ph.D. …follow him on https://avengering.com/en/prof-siavosh-kaviani/

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