Does h-index really matter?
h-index is something in STEM academia that people either really care about or they hate. h-index is a publication metric that is used to quantify the value and impact of someone’s research record. It can even be thought of as a researcher’s GPA. h-index has created comparison and competition in the academia world. People want a higher h-index because it implies higher impact which awards more respect and accolades. h-index was suggested in 2005 by Jorge E. Hirsch as a way to measure other physicists’ research quality. h-index was designed to measure both the productivity (quantity) and citations (quality) of a researcher’s publications.
How is h-index calculated?
h- index uses the number of citations and number of publications to calculate h-index. Google Scholar automatically calculates the h-index for profiles. Typically a higher value means more citations per publication, which implies a greater impact on science.
Criticisms of h-index
Two people with the same h-index can have been different publication records
Let’s say someone published a few papers that were highly cited, but someone else published twice as many papers that were low to moderately cited. These people could have the same h-index! Publons has a great article explaining this.
h-index can vary greatly depending stage of career
Typically graduate students and early career faculty have a lower h-index that tenures faculty. This can introduce bias. At first glance someone with a low h-index might be overlooked or undervalued simply because they’re a young faculty or grad student.
Doesn’t account for differing citation practices across scientific fields
Some disciplines care about other things aside from citations and number of publications including code, patents, and software. Only publications are accounted for in h-index
Can be manipulated
Self-citations and citing your friends and colleagues in hopes they will cite you in the future is a black hat way to raise your h-index!
Creates an incentive to publish more even at reduced quality
When you get too focused on h-index, sometimes researchers will publish more papers simply to make their number go up, even if the paper isn’t very good! Don’t fall into this trap, it’s no worth it!
Does not measure quality
A paper can be cited many times, but that doesn’t mean it’s being cited for good reasons! h-index doesn’t account for whether the paper is of great or poor quality. It also does not take into account impact factor or the journals papers were published in. Typically people want to published in higher impact journals, but this isn’t accounted for in h-index. It relies on the assumption that higher impact journal works will be cited more.
Does not account for author placement
Author placement typically indicates the amount of contribution to an article and h-index doesn’t account for author placement at all!
Does h-index really matter?
h-index is a highly subjective number that depends on a number of factors in someone’s career including discipline, age of career, research content, and the state of a scientific field. The bottom line is scientific impact can’t be summed up by a single number. Even Dr. Hirsch has criticized the use of h-index!
Unfortunately, some hiring committees, proposal reviewers, and funding agencies will focus on h-index or use it as a screening metric. It’s important to be aware of this when going into interviews or writing proposals. Think of h-index like GPA, if you feel people will perceive your GPA, or h-index, in a negative way, prove your value and success in other ways on your application or interview!
What are some better ways to measure research impact and success?
There are other, and better, ways to measure someone’s research impact and success. When reflecting on yourself consider these questions:
- Are you proud of your work?
- Quality over quantity
- Do you see value in what you’re studying?
- Is this work furthering my career goals?
- Am I becoming a better researcher through my work?
- What skills am I learning from this research?
If you’re browsing the internet and trying to make an assessment on a researchers success, whether you’re curious or looking for a mentor/research advisor, consider these points instead:
- What stage of career is this researcher?
- Is this researcher’s work helpful to my own?
- Does this researches work fit my interests?
- Does this researcher produce successful students?
