University Library: Research: H-index

H-index

Jorge Hirsch proposed the h-index or Hirsch index in 2005 as a means of quantifying the impact and productivity of a scientist. The h-index is calculated on the number and impact of a researcher’s publications. An h-index of 40 means that a researcher has published 40 papers that each have at least 40 citations.

Several resources - Web of Science Citation Indexes, Scopus, Google Scholar (via 'Google Scholar Citations' and 'Publish or Perish') and Microsoft Academic Search - include the necessary citation data to calculate a h-index score.

You can also calculate your own h-index if you have a complete list of publications ranked by citation number

Rank your papers from highest cited to lowest, where h=<h

The h-index of an author will be different in each of these resources, since the calculation is based on the indexed content within each resource.

Scopus - an abstract and citation database for scientific, technical, medical and social sciences literature including arts & humanities.

Once in Scopus, click on the Author search tab.
Enter the name of the author in the search box. If you are using initials for the first and/or middle name, be sure to enter periods after the initials (e.g. Smith J.T.).
To ensure accuracy if it is a popular name, you may enter University of Illinois in the affiliation field.
Click search.
- If more than one profile appears, click on your profile (or the profile of the person you are examining). Under the Research section, you will see the h-index listed.
- If you have worked at more than one place, your name may appear twice with 2 separate h-index ratings. Select the check box next to each relevent profile, and click show documents.

Tutorials and Guides

Scopus

Using your google (gmail) account, create a profile of all your articles captured in Google Scholar. This will show all the times the articles have been cited by other documents in Google Scholar. Its your choice whether you make your profile public or private but when you make it public, you can link to it from other webpages.

See Albert Einstein's Google Scholar profile.

Google Scholar Citations Profile

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H-index

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