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Back to all metricsh-indices in SciVal indicate a balance between the productivity (Scholarly Output) and citation impact (Citation Count) of an entity’s publications.
h-indices in SciVal offer 4 variants: the h-index, the g-index, the m-index and the h5-index. The g- and m-indices inherit the positive qualities of the h-index, but address aspects that are sometimes considered shortcomings; therefore these metrics are grouped together into a set collectively called h-indices:
- h-index is now recognized as an industry standard that gives information about the performance of Researchers and Research Areas that is very useful in some situations. h-index of an entity is 9 if the top 9 most-cited publications have each received at least 9 citations; it is 13 if an entity’s top 13 most-cited publications have each received at least 13 citations; and so on.
- g-index is a variant of the h-index that emphasizes the most highly cited papers in a data set. The h-index does not give extra weighting to the most-cited publications of a data set that are likely the ones that are responsible for an entity’s prestige; g-index can be used if this feature of the h-index is seen as a weakness. The g-index is always the same as or higher than the h-index.
- m-index is another variant of the h-index that displays h-index per year since first publication. The h-index tends to increase with career length, and m-index can be used in situations where this is a shortcoming, such as comparing researchers within a field but with very different career lengths. The m-index inherently assumes unbroken research activity since the first publication.
- h5-index uses a 5-year publication and citation window on the standard h-index calculation and as such can be used to fairly track the metric over time in the Benchmarking module. The h5-index for an entity in 2016 takes the publications published by that entity from 2012–2016 and the citations received by those publications in the same time window to form a data set. It then uses the h-index calculation on the data set to compute the h5-index.
h, m & g-indices are available in SciVal for all Researchers, Researcher groups, and for Research Areas. The h5-index is available for Researchers and Institutions.
h-indices are:
- Productivity metrics
- Citation Impact metrics
- Snowball Metrics (h-index only)
- “Power Metrics”
A Researcher, Researcher group, or a Research Area, has a single value for the h-, g- or m-index that is based on all publications in the data set; these indices are not calculated per year. The metrics are always calculated using articles from 1996 - current date, even if the selected date range is smaller. This is represented in the Benchmarking module as the same value for all years so that this metric can be made available in this module; in the Chart view, for instance, a dot will be displayed and the years do not have a meaning.
In the Benchmarking module, the h5-index, is represented as a trend line from 2000 until the last full year in SciVal. The publication year represents the final year of the 5 year h5-index, i.e. 2016 represents the year range 2012–2016 and 2015 represents the year range 2011–2015. When multiple metrics are chosen in Benchmarking, no trend line is displayed. Instead, the mean h5-index is displayed. A change in year range in Benchmarking will effect the mean h5-index.
In the Overview module, the h5-index is always based upon the last 5 complete years. On the other hand, the h-index (available for Researchers only), is based upon all documents for the researcher from 1996 - current date.
- Benchmark activity in a way that relies on the balance between two fundamental aspects of performance, namely productivity and citation impact:
- The total number of publications, or Scholarly Output, of an entity sets a limit for the value of the h-index. If a researcher has 1 publication that has been cited 100 times, their h-index cannot exceed 1.
- The total number of citations received, or Citation Count, sets the other limit for the value of the h-index. If a researcher has 100 publications which have each received 0 or 1 citations, their h-index also cannot exceed 1.
- Be used for a related group of metrics, each with their own strengths
- Benchmark performance over time with the h5-index as the publications and citations windows are the same length
- Comparing entities of significantly different sizes:
- The values of these metrics are limited by the Scholarly Output of an entity, and tend to increase with the size of the data set.
- This can be accounted for within a discipline, when the difference in size is due to different career lengths, by using the m-index; in this situation, variations revealed by the m-index are due to differences in annual productivity and citations received, which are likely the performance aspects of interest.
- Benchmarking entities within different disciplines, even if these entities have similar sizes:
- The values of h-indices are limited by the Citation Count of an entity, and tend to be highest in subject fields such as biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology; this reflects distinct publication and citation behavior between subject fields and does not necessarily indicate a difference in performance.
- It is not advisable to compare the h-indices of entities that fall entirely into distinct disciplines, such as a Researcher in genetics with a Researcher in human-computer interaction.
- When comparing entities made up of a mixture of disciplines, such as cross-disciplinary research teams, it is advised to apply the Research Area filter to focus on one field that is common between all the entities.
- An indication of the magnitude of the productivity and citation impact of an entity is important.
- It is advised to use Scholarly Output and Citation Count when it is important to communicate scale.
- Entities are small and there may be gaps in their output within the Scopus coverage:
- A single missing publication from a total or 3 or 4 will have a significant negative impact on apparent performance, whereas the effect of 1 missing publication from a total of 100 may be acceptable.
- The only way to account for this is to be vigilant, particularly when looking at small data sets such as an early-career researcher, or to limit the use of these metrics to comparing larger data sets in which potential gaps in the database coverage likely have a similar effect on all entities being viewed and do not invalidate the comparison.
- Scholarly Output opens in new tab/windowand Citation Count opens in new tab/windowwhich provide information about the magnitude of productivity and citation impact
- The set of all other “Power Metrics” whose value tends to increase as the entity becomes bigger: Scholarly Output, Subject Area Count, Scopus Source Title Count, Citation Count, Cited Publications (“Total value”), Number of Citing Countries, Collaboration (“Total value”), Academic-Corporate Collaboration (“Total value”), Outputs in Top Citation Percentiles (“Total value”), and Publications in Top Journal Percentiles (“Total value”)
- The set of “time-independent metrics”, which provide useful, reliable information immediately upon publication and do not rely on the passing of time for useful data to accumulate: Scholarly Output, Subject Area Count, Scopus Source Title Count, Collaboration, Academic-Corporate Collaboration, and Publications in Top Journal Percentiles
Scenario: The user would like to calculate the h-indices of an entity that consists of 10 publications. They have not selected any viewing or calculation options.
Click here (Opens in a new tab or window)opens in new tab/windowto see a PDF example of the h-indices calculation.
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