The h-index is a quantitative measure of an author’s scientific output based on the number of research articles published each year and their citations. It measures an individual author’s research output. It is critical that early career researchers become familiar with the h-index and how it works to assess their research impact and plan and strategize their career paths.
What is an h-index?
An h-index is a metric tool that measures the productivity and impact of the work done by researchers and scholars. This metric is generally used in the academic and scientific community as it gives a rough measure of the number of papers produced by a researcher and the impact it has created by assessing the number of citations that they have received. Researchers have to note that just being prolific in bringing out publications is not the only criterion.
This has to be balanced by an increasing number of citations in order to receive a high h-index score. Therefore, researchers need to continue producing high-quality research outputs with increased citations to increase their h-index score. In other words, it is not enough that you receive numerous citations for just one article, as it will not increase your h-index.
If you are still confused about what an h-index is, here is a simple explanation.
The h-index reflects the number of papers (h) that have been cited and the number of times it is cited, as against those that have been published but have fewer or no citations. For example, a h-index of 6 means that you have six publications with at least 6 number of citations. Let’s now take a detailed look at how to calculate your h-index.
The first step in the process is to list all published articles by a researcher in a table format. Then, for each published article, please state the number of times it has been cited. Next, you need to rank the papers according to the number of times it has been cited. Finally, we can arrive at the h-index by finding the entry at which the rank in the list is greater than the number of citations.
Factors affecting the interpretation of h-index
Various factors affect how the researcher’s h-index is interpreted. These factors are discipline-specific and include the career phase of the researchers and their experience, citation practices, and the influence of the field’s publication culture. This is because rules, guidelines, and publication practices often differ across subjects and disciplines, and this can, therefore, affect the way the h-index is interpreted. In the fields of natural sciences, typically, one can find higher citation rates for researchers.
Consequently, it is essential to understand field-specific citation practices while looking at a researcher’s h-index.
Citation practices can also vary across research communities and geographic regions with specific cultural backgrounds. These should be factored in while interpreting the h-index. Additionally, the legacy of the publication or journal also makes a massive difference in garnering a good h-index score.
Articles appearing in journals from well-known universities, for example, increase the chances of your work being cited by more authors, thereby positively influencing your h-index scores. This is why early career researchers need to have a good grasp of the various journals and their h-index scores before they submit their articles to maximize the chances of being cited more often.
Another factor that influences the h-index is the stage of the researcher’s career journey. Researchers who have been writing articles in journals and other publications for many years typically have a higher h-index score than those who may have just embarked on their scholarly careers.
Benchmarking of h-index and h-index ranges in different academic disciplines
One can also benchmark the h-index by comparing an individual researcher’s h-index to that of other researchers in a similar field or discipline. Benchmarking helps a researcher assess their research impact compared to that of their colleagues and determine where they are in terms of productivity and citation impact.
However, there are challenges in defining a universally “good” h-index. Some of these include field variations, the career stage of the researcher, varied research focus leading to variations in citation impact, and increased self-citations, which can affect the viability of the h-index matrix.
Some examples of h-index ranges in different academic disciplines are as follows: In life sciences (biology, medicine), the h-index for early career researchers can range from 5 to 20, while for long-term researchers, it is between 20 and 50. Any number above 50 means that the researcher has a high impact on their productivity as well as citations.
In the field of humanities, the h-index ranges from 2 to 10 for early researchers and between 10 and 30 for well-established researchers. Those with more than 30 are categorized as being enormously impactful.
To conclude, many in the research and academic fields contend that the h-index may be an insufficient assessment of research. Across Europe, many associations, along with the European Commission, have joined together to form an agreement on reforming research assessments known as the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA)¹ to develop and implement reforms in assessing research.
References
1. https://coara.eu/app/uploads/2022/09/2022_07_19_rra_agreement_final.pdf
Editage All Access is a subscription-based platform that unifies the best AI tools and services designed to speed up, simplify, and streamline every step of a researcher’s journey. The Editage All Access Pack is a one-of-a-kind subscription that unlocks full access to an AI writing assistant, literature recommender, journal finder, scientific illustration tool, and exclusive discounts on professional publication services from Editage.
Based on 22+ years of experience in academia, Editage All Access empowers researchers to put their best research forward and move closer to success. Explore our top AI Tools pack, AI Tools + Publication Services pack, or Build Your Own Plan. Find everything a researcher needs to succeed, all in one place – Get All Access now starting at just $14 a month!
