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Turku University Library

Evaluation based on scientific publications

This guide is based on the LibGuide created by Tritonia Academic Library.

The h-index

The Hirsch-index was developed by Professor Jorge E Hirsch in 2005. The index measures the researcher’s publication effectiveness and the significance of the publications. The larger the h-index is the greater is the number of the researcher's publications that have been cited. 

The h-index is a positive total value, which is calculated as follows:

The researcher has index h if h of their Np papers have at least h citations each, and the other (Np − h) papers have no more than h citations each.

 

To be observed regarding the h-index:

  • The advantage of the h-index is its stability, since a few publications that have been cited many times do not greatly affect the index value. Publications that have not been cited at all, or only a few times, do not affect the index value at all
  • The h-index varies among different disciplines, which means that the h-indexes of researchers from different disciplines are not comparable. The publication and citation practices of disciplines differ, as well as the coverage of citation databases. The databases for the fields of Science and Medicine tend to provide the best and most up-to-date coverage.
  • The h-index is usually higher for researchers with a long research career, than for young researchers who are beginning their career.
  • The h-index can also be used for the evaluation of journals

Read more about h-index in the Finnish national guide to publication metrics.

 
 

Where to find H-index?

H-index in different databases

 

1. Select the Researchers tab. Enter the author's last name and first initial. 
You can also search by ORCID or WoS Researcher ID by selecting Author Identifier from the drop-down menu.

 

2. Select the right person from the author list. Profiles claimed by the author are identified with a green tick.
Sometimes there may be more than one entry for the same author. In that case, you can ask to merge your author data. 
Choose the authors to be merged, then click "Merge records" and follow the instructions.

 

3. The h-index for the person appears in the author profile page.
Click "View citation report" if you want to refine years etc.


 



 

 

1. Choose the Authors tab

2. Enter the author's last name and the initial of the first name into the appropriate search boxes.

3. Select the right person from the author list
Tip! Sometimes there may be more than one entry for the same author. In that case, you can ask Scopus to merge your author data. Choose the authors to be merged, then click "Request to merge authors" and follow the instructions.

4. The h-index for the person appears in the author data. The h-indexes of the researchers include citations back to 1970.
Click "Citation overview" if you want to exclude self-citations or refine years.

 

In Google Scholar Profiles researchers can create and maintain their own account (gmail account) and add their publications found through the Google Scholar search. The profile shows the number of times the publication has been cited and an automatically computed h-index. The profile can be public or private.

Finding researcher’s h-index using the Google Scholar author profiles

Use the Google Scholar search or sign in to your own Google Scholar Profile account.

1. Enter author's name into Google Scholar search.

2. If the researcher has created a public Google Scholar use rprofile, it will appear first in the result list.

3. Researcher's h-index on author profile page has been calculated using the Google Scholar data.
 


 

 

Publish or Perish is a free software developed by the Australian Anne-Wil Harzing that uses the Google Scholar data to analyze citations. The software is available for downloading from http://www.harzing.com/pop.htm.

The software can be used, for example, to evaluate author impact, journal impact and to create various indexes (h-index, g-index etc.).


How to calculate researcher’s h-index with Publish of Perish (version 5)

  1. Click New and select Google Scholar Query to create a new query or select an existing query to modify
  2. Enter the author’s name in the Authors field (either first name surname or the first name initial surname)
  3. If necessary, restrict the years of publication and perform search (Lookup)
  4. Choose the publications you want
  5. The h-index will automatically update as you select publications from the list.

 

Screen capture of the Publish and Perish program. Visualises written instructions.