h-Index
The h-Index is a different type of measure which is assigned to an author rather than a particular paper or work. This is a more recent measure developed in 2005 by Dr Jorge Hirsch, a physicist at the University of California.
The h-index is designed to measure the impact and productivity of a researcher. It examines the total number of papers published by a researcher and the number of citations received by each paper. The h-index is calculated by the number of papers from an individual’s publication list to have at least the same number of citations. If a researcher has a h-index of 5 then they have at least 5 publications with 5 or more citations.
It’s commonly accepted that the h-Index varies for different research disciplines, purely because of the different publishing patterns of the disciplines.
Video
Watch this video to see how to retrieve author impact data from the Scopus database.
Scopus tutorial: how to assess an author’s impact (2:57 min) by Scopus (YouTube)
Activity
After watching the video, go to Scopus and search for your’s or a colleague’s author impact information.
Video
Watch the video below to explore more about issues around impact factors.
“I am very troubled by the importance of impact factors” Brian Kobilka, Nobel Laureate (1:50 min) by NobelPrizeII (YouTube)
