Skip to main content
Log in

Comprehensive geometrical interpretation of h-type indices

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Quantitative evaluation of scientists now has become very important at many aspects in the range of nation, even all over the world. Among the indices used for quantitative evaluation, h-type indicators are the most popular right now. However, because of the problem that mastering more than 40 variants is difficult and time-consuming, we need an intuitional and quick method by which we can present these indicators for evaluators and those even with little knowledge regarding to h-type indicators. In this paper, we introduce the paper-citation histogram in which most h-type indicators could be illustrated with their geometrical interpretation. With the help of these plots, evaluators can better understand the indices in a relatively short time. Meanwhile the geometrical interpretation can provide an insight into the research achievements of scientists.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Abramo, G. & DAngelo, C. (2011). Evaluating research: From informed peer review to bibliometrics. Scientometrics 87(3), 499–514.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Abramo, G. & DAngelo, C. (2011). National-scale research performance assessment at the individual level. Scientometrics 86(2), 347–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Alonso, S., Cabrerizo, F., Herrera-Viedma, E. & Herrera, F. (2009). h-index: A review focused in its variants, computation and standardization for different scientific fields. Journal of Informetrics 3(4), 273–289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Alonso, S., Cabrerizo, F., Herrera-Viedma, E. & Herrera, F. (2010). hg-index: A new index to characterize the scientific output of researchers based on the h-and g-indices. Scientometrics 82(2), 391–400.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Bornmann, L., Mutz, R. & Daniel, H. (2008). Are there better indices for evaluation purposes than the h index? a comparison of nine different variants of the h index using data from biomedicine. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 59(5), 830–837.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Braun, T., Bergstrom, C., Frey, B., Osterloh, M., West, J., Pendlebury, D. & Rohn, J. (2010). How to improve the use of metrics. Nature 465(17), 870–872.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Cabrerizo, F., Alonso, S., Herrera-Viedma, E. & Herrera, F. (2010). q2-index: Quantitative and qualitative evaluation based on the number and impact of papers in the hirsch core. Journal of Informetrics 4(1), 23–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Carbó-Dorca, R. (2010). A monodimensional scientific performance measure: the h index, can be substituted by simple multidimensional descriptors? Journal of mathematical chemistry 47(1), 548–550.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. Costas, R. & Bordons, M. (2007). The h-index: Advantages, limitations and its relation with other bibliometric indicators at the micro level. Journal of Informetrics 1(3), 193–203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Costas, R. & Bordons, M. (2008). Is g-index better than h-index? an exploratory study at the individual level. Scientometrics 77(2), 267–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Egghe, L. (2006). Theory and practise of the g-index. Scientometrics 69(1), 131–152.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  12. Egghe, L. (2010). The hirsch index and related impact measures. Annual review of information science and technology 44(1), 65–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Hirsch, J. (2005). An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United states of America 102(46), 16,569.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Jin, B. (2006). H-index: an evaluation indicator proposed by scientist. Science Focus 1(1), 8–9.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Jin, B. (2007). The ar-index: complementing the h-index. ISSI newsletter 3(1):6.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Jin, B., Liang, L., Rousseau, R. & Egghe, L. (2007). The r-and ar-indices: Complementing the h-index. Chinese science bulletin 52(6), 855–863.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Kelly, C. & Jennions, M. (2006). The <i> h index </i> and career assessment by numbers. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 21(4), 167–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Kosmulski, M. (2006). A new hirsch-type index saves time and works equally well as the original h-index. ISSI newsletter 2(3), 4–6.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Microsoft: http://academic.research.microsoft.com/.

  20. Rousseau, R. (2006). New developments related to the hirsch index.

  21. Schreiber, M. (2008). To share the fame in a fair way, hm modifies h for multi-authored manuscripts. New Journal of Physics 10, 040,201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Sidiropoulos, A., Katsaros, D. & Manolopoulos, Y. (2007). Generalized hirsch h-index for disclosing latent facts in citation networks. Scientometrics 72(2), 253–280.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Zhang, C. (2009). The e-index, complementing the h-index for excess citations. PLoS One 4(5), e5429.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was under Grand by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U1233110), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. DUT10JR06).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yu Liu.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Liu, Y., Zuo, W., Gao, Y. et al. Comprehensive geometrical interpretation of h-type indices. Scientometrics 96, 605–615 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0916-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0916-1

Keywords

Navigation