Monday, December 15, 2008

h-index

The Hirsch index is probably the most interesting measure provided in scientometrics in recent years. Some statistics based on h-index for IISc

Number of faculty who have h-index more than 80: 1 (Prof. CNR Rao)
Number of faculty who have h-index between 50 and 79: 1 (Prof. P. Balaram)
Number of faculty who have h-index between 40 and 49: 2
Number of faculty who have h-index between 25 and 39: 26
Number of faculty in engineering who have h-index more than 30: 0
Number of faculty in engineering who have h-index more than 25: 3
Some interesting correlations that seem to be valid in IISc. Np > h*5; Nc > 3*h*h, where Np and Nc refer to the total number of papers and citations.

However, one area in which h-index fails is for a young scientist, who is starting his career. In fact, h-index below 5 has no significant meaning. Therefore, a new method has been proposed to modify the index for graduate students and young faculty.

No comments: