Research Impact

Citation metrics, such as the number of scholarly works a researcher has published and the total number of times these works have been cited, are typically used to measure research impact. The two author metrics used most frequently are the h-index and the i-10 index.

The h-index was created in 2005 by J.E. Hirsch. Even though the h-index is regularly used by scholars, it does have limitations as outlined in the Metrics Toolkit.

• The h-index favours researchers further along in their career over early career researchers. (See video).
• Since academic disciplines vary in how many scholarly works authors typically publish, it is not recommended to compare the h-index of researchers from different fields.
• The h-index is calculated by the Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar. However, the h-index could be different in each resource since they base their calculations only on the scholarly work they index.
• It is not recommended to use the h-index as the only measurement of research impact or the quality of the researcher's work.

Recommended Reading

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. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0507655102

The h-Index is calculated in three databases - Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar.

1. Web of Science

• Access the Web of Science database.
• Once you have accessed the Web of Science click on the Sign In link. Next enter your email address and password information.
• On the Web of Science search screen locate your name and click on the down arrow. From the drop down list select  My Profile.
• In the Metrics section of your profile page you will find your h-index.

2. Scopus

• Access the Scopus database.
• On the Start exploring Scopus web page click on the Authors link.
• Enter your last name, first name and affiliation to search for your h-index. Note you can search for any researcher to find their h-index.
• On the results screen, you will find the number of documents indexed for the researcher in Scopus along with the h-index.

3. Google Scholar

• Access the Google Scholar database.
• Select the My profile link and sign in to your account.
• In the Cited by section of your profile page, you will find your h-index.

The i-10 index was created by Google Scholar and this author metric is only used by Google Scholar. Here is Google Scholar's definition - "i-10 index is the number of publications with at least 10 citations.".

1. Google Scholar

• Access the Google Scholar database.
• Select the My profile link and sign in to your account.
• In the Cited by section of your profile page, you will find your i-10 index.