Skip to main content
Log in

Probing the h-core: an investigation of the tail–core ratio for rank distributions

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The set of citations received by a set of publications consists of citations received by articles in the h-core and citations received by articles in the h-tail. Denoting the cardinalities of these fours sets as C, P, C H and C T we introduce the tail-core ratio (C T/C H) and show that in practical cases this ratio tends to increase. Introducing further the k-index, defined as k = (C/P)/(C T/C H), we show that this index decreases in most practical cases. A power law model is in accordance with these practical observations.

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.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Egghe, L. (2005). Power laws in the information production process: Lotkaian informetrics. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Egghe, L. (2010). The Hirsch-index and related impact measures. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (to appear).

  • Egghe, L., & Rousseau, R. (2006). An informetric model for the Hirsch-index. Scientometrics, 69(1), 121–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirsch, J. E. (2005). An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102(46), 16569–16572.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jin, B. H., Liang, L. M., Rousseau, R., & Egghe, L. (2007). The R- and AR-indices: Complementing the h-index. Chinese Science Bulletin, 52(6), 855–863.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liang, L. M., & Rousseau, R. (2009). A general approach to citation analysis and an h-index based on the standard impact factor framework. In B. Larsen & J. Leta (Eds.), ISSI 2009; 12th international conference on scientometrics and informetrics (pp. 143–153). Rio de Janeiro: BIREME and University of Rio de Janeiro.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Y. X., & Rousseau, R. (2008). Definitions of time series in citation analysis with special attention to the h-index. Journal of Informetrics, 2(3), 202–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riikonen, P., & Vihinen, M. (2008). National research contributions: A case study on Finnish biomedical research. Scientometrics, 77(2), 207–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rousseau, R. (2006). New developments related to the Hirsch index. Science Focus, 1(4), 23–25 (in Chinese). English version available at: E-LIS: code 6376.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schubert, A., & Glänzel, W. (2007). A systematic analysis of Hirsch-type indices for journals. Journal of Informetrics, 1(2), 179–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ye, F. Y., & Rousseau, R. (2008). The power law model and total career h-index sequences. Journal of Informetrics, 2(4), 288–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

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

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Fred Y. Ye’s work is supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC Grant No. 70773101), while Ronald Rousseau’s work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Grant No. 70673019. The authors thank graduate student Jianhui Tang for assistance in data collection and Leo Egghe for checking the power law calculations.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ronald Rousseau.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ye, F.Y., Rousseau, R. Probing the h-core: an investigation of the tail–core ratio for rank distributions. Scientometrics 84, 431–439 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0099-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0099-6

Keywords

Navigation