How to judge a book by its cover? How useful are bibliometric indices for the evaluation of "scientific quality" or "scientific productivity"?

[Eugene Garfield]

How to judge a book by its cover? How useful are bibliometric indices for the 
evaluation of "scientific quality" or "scientific productivity"?

Author(s): Halbach, OVU (Halbach, Oliver von Bohlen Und)
Source: ANNALS OF ANATOMY-ANATOMISCHER ANZEIGER  Volume: 193  Issue: 
3  Pages: 191-196  DOI: 10.1016/j.aanat.2011.03.011  Published: 2011  

Abstract: How to pre-select the most promising candidates for an open position 
out of several applications? One of the possibilities is to check the personal 
bibliometric indices of these candidates by looking into appropriate databases. 
In these databases the number of publications, the total number of citations, 
the average number of citations per paper and the h-index are easy to find. 
Thus, it is easy to use these parameters for a pre-election. First, the particular 
values for the several bibliometric indicators could be retrieved for scientists 
working in the field of Anatomy & Cell Biology. Next, an analysis of how useful 
and reliable these bibliometric indicators are is performed. Most of the 
indicators strongly depend on the seniority of a researcher. Thus, these 
indicators favour older scientists over younger ones. Based on that, these 
indicators are not well-suited to identify young and promising scientists. 
Therefore, it is proposed that indicators, which correct for the time a scientists 
spends working in the field, may be better suited for such a pre-election, such 
as the hy index (also known as m-index) or the Py index. In this context, it 
should be emphasized that these indicators may be useful for pre-selection. All 
available indicators are based on data obtained from the past achievements of 
the scientists and may not predict their future achievements. However, despite 
the availability of these indicators, the best method to gain an impression of 
the quality is currently still the old-fashioned method of reading the papers. (C) 
2011 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Language: English
Document Type: Article
Author Keywords: h-Index; Bibliometrics; m-Index; Evaluation
KeyWords Plus: H-INDEX; IMPACT FACTORS; CITATIONS

Addresses: Ernst Moritz Arndt Univ Greifswald, Inst Anat & Cell Biol, D-17487 
Greifswald, Germany
Reprint Address: Halbach, OVU (reprint author), Ernst Moritz Arndt Univ 
Greifswald, Inst Anat & Cell Biol, Friedrich Loeffler Str 23C, D-17487 Greifswald, 
Germany

E-mail Address: oliver.vonbohlen at uni-greifswald.de
ISSN: 0940-9602
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0940960211000768