What is my h-index, where can I find it and what does it mean?
Answer
What is the h-index?
The h-index is a metric that aims to reflect both the productivity and citation impact of a researcher’s publications. It was introduced by physicist Jorge Hirsch in 2005. A researcher has an h-index of h if they have h publications that have each been cited at least h times. For example:
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An h-index of 10 means the researcher has published 10 papers, each with at least 10 citations.
The h-index attempts to balance quantity (number of publications) with quality (citations per publication) in one measure.
Where and why is the h-index useful?
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Academic Impact Indicator: The h-index does provide a more holistic view of productivity than raw citation counts by considering both the quantity and quality of citations.
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Identifying Influential Researchers: The h-index can help to identify influential researchers in specific fields by comparing the impact of their work to that of their peers.
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Tracking of Progress: You can can track your own h-index over time to monitor how your academic output and citation impact are evolving.
When and why to be cautious with the h-index
While the h-index can provide indicators of academic productivity and impact, it is important to be aware that it is now widely recognised to hold a number of limitations:
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Does Not Account for Article Quality: The h-index is based on citation counts, but it does not measure the quality or significance of individual citations. A paper with 10 citations could have a substantial impact on a niche field, but this would not be reflected in the h-index.
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Disciplinary Differences: The h-index varies significantly across academic disciplines. Fields with higher citation rates, such as the life sciences, tend to have higher h-indices compared to fields with lower citation rates, such as the humanities or mathematics. As a result, the h-index is not directly comparable across disciplines without considering context.
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Ignores Author Order and Contribution: The h-index does not differentiate between the primary author and co-authors. In multi-author papers, all contributors are counted equally, even though some may have contributed more significantly to the research than others.
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Ignores Career Length: Researchers with longer careers may naturally have a higher h-index simply due to more time to accumulate citations, while newer researchers may have lower h-indices even if their work is of comparable quality.
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Vulnerable to Self-Citation and Citation Cartels: As with other citation-based metrics, the h-index can be artificially inflated by excessive self-citation or by citation cartels, where researchers agree to cite each other’s work disproportionately.
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Not a Full Measure of Impact: The h-index is a quantitative metric and does not capture the broader societal impact of research, such as influence on policy, public understanding, or innovation outside academia.
📌 The h-index should always be interpreted in context and never used as a sole measure of research quality or impact.
Platforms that provide the h-index
Several platforms allow researchers to calculate their h-index, each with its own strengths and limitations:
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- Scopus is one of the most popular platforms for calculating the h-index. It tracks citations across peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, and other academic sources, providing an up-to-date view of a researcher’s academic impact.
- Scopus provides both individual and author-level h-index scores, and it includes citation trends over time, which can be useful for monitoring changes in academic impact.
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- WoS offers h-index calculations for individual researchers. It tracks citations from a variety of academic journals and provides citation data for papers published across multiple decades.
- WoS provides an Author Impact Profile that includes h-index along with citation counts and other important metrics, although its coverage may differ from Scopus.
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Google Scholar
- Google Scholar provides h-index calculations through its freely available researcher profiles. The platform is often used by researchers who want a broader view of their citation data, including citations from non-traditional academic sources (e.g., books, theses, or conference presentations).
- However, Google Scholar is less curated than Scopus or WoS, so the data may be less precise, with potential for skewed results from non-peer-reviewed sources.
Why the h-index varies between platforms
The h-index may differ across platforms due to several factors:
Factor | Impact |
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Database coverage | Scopus and Web of Science index different journals; Google Scholar includes grey literature |
Citation updates | Some platforms refresh data more frequently |
Treatment of self-citations | May or may not include self-citations by default |
Document types | Books and conference papers may be included on some platforms but not others |
How to Find Your h-index in Scopus
To find your h-index in Scopus, follow these steps:
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Search for Your Author Profile:
- Access Scopus using the link provided within Library search
- Click on the “Author Search” tab.
- Enter your name or ORCID ID to find your author profile. If you don’t have a profile yet, you may need to create one.
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View Your Author Profile:
- Once you locate your author profile, click on it to view your detailed information.
- Scopus will display your citation overview, which includes your h-index, total citations, and citation trends over time.
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Check the h-index:
- Your h-index will be listed in the “Citation Overview” section of your profile. It will show the value of your h-index, along with other metrics such as total citations and the number of articles that have been cited.
- You can view a visual representation by clicking on the "View h-graph" option
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Review Citation Data:
- You can explore the individual articles that contributed to your h-index by looking at your publications list. The most cited papers will appear at the top, and you can see the citation count for each paper.
Need help interpreting your h-index?
The Research Indicators team can help you:
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Understand how your h-index is calculated
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Compare across platforms responsibly
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Use metrics appropriately in CVs, grant applications, or research evaluations
📞 Contact the Office for Open Research for tailored support.