Author Metrics

Author Metrics

The h-Index

The h-index is a common metric that attempts to measure both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist or scholar. It was intended to be an unbiased way of comparing people within a discipline, especially in the sciences. The h-index is a reflection of both the number of publication and the number of citations per publication. For example, an h-index of 25 means the researcher has published at least 25 papers, each of which has been cited at least 25 or more times.

The h-index can be found in Web of Science, Scopus, or Google. Your h-index may vary depending on which of these resources you consult because it is calculated based on the citations indexed by each.

Caveats to using the h-index:

• The h-index cannot be used to compare researchers in different disciplines due to differences in citations practices.
• The h-index can put early career researchers at a disadvantage since citations tend to increase over time
• should not be used as the only indicator to evaluate a researcher.

Finding your h-Index with Scopus

Scopus has built-in features that make it easy to quickly find your h-index and create basic visualizations about a set of citations. You can use these features to discover the journals where you most frequently publish, view a network of your co-authors, and more.

1. To find your h-index in Scopus and view all of your citations, use the “Author” search feature to locate your author profile.
2. Click on your name on the results page to view your “Author Details” page in Scopus. Your h-index will be displayed to the right of your name.

Finding your h-Index with Web of Science

Web of Science has built-in features that make it easy to quickly find your h-index and create basic visualizations about a set of citations. You can use these features to discover the journals where you most frequently publish, view a network of your co-authors, and more.

See more from Web of Science and their author or search analytics functions on their guide.

The Citation Report feature in Web of Science automatically calculates the h-index, average number of citations per publication, and the sum of all citations (with or without self-citations) for a group of citations. To find your own h-index, use the “Author Search” feature to locate all of your citations to use as the citation pool to be analyzed. Data can be exported to a Microsoft Excel file for further analysis.

Why Establish a Researcher Profile?

Creating and maintaining a unique public profile for the dissemination and promotion of your research is key to establishing your identity as a researcher. A researcher profile serves as a persistent identifier linking together your scholarly output throughout your career. A research profile can:

• Link all variations and changes to your name to one profile
• Disambiguate yourself from other researchers with the same or similar name
• Associate all of your publications throughout your career across multiple departments and institutional affiliations
• Enhance discoverability of your work by potential collaborators
• Make creating publication lists of your work fast and easy
• Allow you to take advantage of enhanced database features, such as tracking your h-index and and other research metrics

ORCID

ORCID is an acronym for “Open Researcher and Contributor ID.” ORCID is an independent, non-profit, community-based registry of unique research identifiers that allows researchers to create and maintain their own researcher profile. Researchers can include their education, work history, citations, and other research output in a single profile. Profile content can be imported by linking your ORCID profile to a Scopus Author ID or the Web of Science Publons, or by manually adding data from PubMed or other sources.

SciENcv

SciENcv, the Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae, is a researcher profile system for all individuals who apply for, receive, or are associated with research investments from U.S.federal agencies. SciENcv is available in My NCBI.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a search engine that searches the web for scholarly and peer reviewed literature. Google Scholar allows authors to create and maintain a profile page. Sign in to your Google Account and you’ll be able to review your profile.

Scopus

Scopus, a blbliographic literature database from Elsevier, automatically creates an Author ID for authors as new citations are added to the database. An algorithm attempts to link citations with similar attributes to an Author ID. You can find your Author ID and make any corrections to the citations associated with your profile.

Publons from Clarivate Analytics

Publons (formerly ResearcherID) is the peer review activity tracker and researcher profile solution developed by Clarivate Analytics, the parent company of the Web of Science database. Upon registering, you are assigned a unique identifier you can use to manage your publication list, track citations to your work, and view your h-index, as well as a record of your work as a peer reviewer.