Twenty Hirsch index variants and other indicators giving more or less preference to highly cited papers

Abstract

The Hirsch index or h-index is widely used to quantify the impact of an individual's scientific research output, determining the highest number h of a scientist's papers that received at least h citations. Several variants of the index have been proposed in order to give more or less preference to highly cited papers. I analyse the citation records of 26 physicists discussing various suggestions, in particular A, e, f, g, h(2), h_w, h_T, \hbar, m, π, R, s, t, w, and maxprod. The total number of all and of all cited publications as well as the highest and the average number of citations are also compared. Advantages and disadvantages of these indices and indicators are discussed. Correlation coefficients are determined quantifying which indices and indicators yield similar and which yield more deviating rankings of the 26 datasets. For 6 datasets the determination of the indices and indicators is visualized.

19 pages, including 6 tables and 3 figures accepted for publication in Annalen der Physik Berlin

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• Assessing the true role of coauthors in the h-index measure of an author scientific impact
• Metrics to evaluate research performance in academic institutions: A critique of ERA 2010 as applied in forestry and the indirect H2 index as a possible alternative
• How to improve the outcome of performance evaluations in terms of percentiles for citation frequencies of my papers
• Binary Scientific Star Coauthors Core Size
• Empirical Evidence for the Relevance of Fractional Scoring in the Calculation of Percentile Rank Scores
• Measuring the evaluation and impact of scientific works and their authors
• A scientometrics law about co-authors and their ranking. The co-author core
• $h_{PI}$: The Citation Index for Principal Investigators
• Categorizing Hirsch Index Variants
• Citation network centrality: a scientific awards predictor?