Sorry for cross-posting but should be of interest to the ones interested in citation studies. - Tapaswi ----- Original Message ----- From: Susan Berteaux To: iamslic@ucdavis.edu Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 1:37 AM Subject: [IAMSLIC:5359] H index to quantify an individual's scientific output This morning a faculty member asked about a new factor which he had just read about in Science that measures the impact or stature of individual scientists. It's called the H Index after Jorge Hirsch who proposed it. For any researcher the h number is the largest number for which it is true that the researcher has h publications with at least h citations. For example, an eminent physicist has the very high h number of 110 because he has 110 publications with at least 110 citations. The article goes on to say that the h index can be easily found using WoK and then sorting by "times cited". There's more information at: http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/8/9/1 This page also provides a link to the original article by Hirsch, "An index to quantify an individual's scientific output". Note that the examples given were from a 20 year backfile so I'm not sure how that translates if your backfiles don't go back that far. -- Susan ============================================== Susan S. Berteaux...Head, Science & Technology Library Syracuse University...Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 Ph: 315/443-9766...Fax: 315/443-5549...Email: ssbertea@syr.edu Sorry for cross-posting but should be of interest to the ones interested in citation studies. - Tapaswi   ----- Original Message ----- From: mailto:Ssbertea@syr.edu Susan Berteaux To: mailto:iamslic@ucdavis.edu iamslic@ucdavis.edu Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 1:37 AM Subject: [IAMSLIC:5359] H index to quantify an individual's scientific output This morning a faculty member asked about a new factor which he had just read about in Science that measures the impact or stature of individual scientists. It's called the H Index after Jorge Hirsch who proposed it.  For any researcher the h number is the largest number for which it is true that the researcher has h publications with at least h citations.  For example, an eminent physicist has the very high h number of 110 because he has 110 publications with at least 110 citations. The article goes on to say that the h index can be easily found using WoK and then sorting by "times cited".   There's more information at:        http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/8/9/1 http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/8/9/1 This page also provides a link to the original article by Hirsch, "An index to quantify an individual's scientific output".   Note that the examples given were from a 20 year backfile so I'm not sure how that translates if your backfiles don't go back that far.   -- Susan   ============================================== Susan S. Berteaux...Head, Science & Technology Library Syracuse University...Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 Ph:  315/443-9766...Fax: 315/443-5549...Email: mailto:ssbertea@syr.edu ssbertea@syr.edu