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Brief Communication
What do we know about the h index?
Article first published online: 27 APR 2007
DOI: 10.1002/asi.20609
Copyright © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company
Issue
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Volume 58, Issue 9, pages 1381–1385, July 2007
Additional Information
How to Cite
Bornmann, L. and Daniel, H.-D. (2007), What do we know about the h index?. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci., 58: 1381–1385. doi: 10.1002/asi.20609
Publication History
- Issue published online: 13 JUN 2007
- Article first published online: 27 APR 2007
- Manuscript Accepted: 12 OCT 2006
- Manuscript Revised: 10 OCT 2006
- Manuscript Received: 7 AUG 2006
- Abstract
- Article
- References
- Cited By
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.