h index

[Bornmann Lutz]

Dear colleagues,
you might be interested in the first review of studies on the h index:
 
Bornmann, L. & Daniel, H.-D. (2007). What do we know about the h index? Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(9), 1381-1385
 
Abstract: Jorge Hirsch (2005a, 2005b) recently proposed the h index to quantify the research output of individual scientists. The new index has attracted a lot of attention in the scientific community. The claim that the h index in a single number provides a good representation of the scientific lifetime achievement of a scientist as well as the (supposed) simple calculation of the h index using common literature databases lead to the danger of improper use of the index. We describe the advantages and disadvantages of the h index and summarize the studies on the convergent validity of this index. We also introduce corrections and complements as well as single-number alternatives to the h index.
 
Anyone wanting a copy of our publication, please let me know.
Lutz Bornmann
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Dr. Lutz Bornmann
ETH Zurich, D-GESS
Professorship for Social Psychology and Research on Higher Education
Zaehringerstr. 24 / ZAE
CH-8092 Zurich
Phone: 0041 44 632 48 25
Fax: 0041 44 632 12 83
http://www.psh.ethz.ch/index_EN <https://mail.ethz.ch/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.psh.ethz.ch/index_EN>  <https://mail.ethz.ch/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.psh.ethz.ch/> 
bornmann at gess.ethz.ch
 
Download of publications: www.lutz-bornmann.de/Publications.htm