What are the pros of h-index?

The h-index's main pros are that it's a single, simple metric balancing a researcher's publication quantity and citation impact, reducing the sway of outliers like one super-cited paper or many uncited ones, allowing for fairer comparisons within disciplines, and serving as a reliable indicator for funding, promotions, and assessing scholarly achievement over time. It reflects consistent research output, not just peaks of fame, making it a useful tool for academic evaluation.

What are the advantages of h-index?

The main advantage of h-index is that it combines a measure of quantity and impact in a single indicator. It has been calculated in different fields such as physics (Hirsch, 2005), biomedicine (Bornmann & Daniel, 2005), information science (Cronin & Meho, 2006), and business (Saad, 2006).

Is the h-index useful?

5 The h-index can be used as a yardstick for comparing many researchers for fellowships in research or for grants application in the same field. It can also predict the future achievement of a researcher.

What is a good h-index after 30 years?

According to Hirsch, a person with 20 years of research experience with an h-index of 20 is considered good, 40 is great, and 60 is remarkable.

What's a good h-index score?

A "good" h-index varies significantly by career stage and field, but generally, an h-index of 20 is considered good after 20 years, 40 is outstanding, and 60 is exceptional, according to its creator Jorge Hirsch. For career progression, benchmarks might be 8-12 for associate professors, 15-20 for full professors, and 30+ for high-impact researchers, while fields like Physics and Medicine often have higher scores than Humanities.
 

What is an h-index? | How to calculate your h-index

What is Einstein's h-index?

Albert Einstein's h-index varies depending on the database but is generally considered low for his immense impact, often cited as around 4-5 in older sources or up to 67 in newer databases like Microsoft Academic Graph, with Google Scholar showing ~129, highlighting the h-index's limitation for historical figures with short but revolutionary publication periods, like his famous 1905 "Annus Mirabilis" papers.
 

What are top 2% scientists?

There isn't a definitive "Top 2 Scientists" as science is vast, but Stanford University compiles a prestigious list of the "World's Top 2% Scientists," identifying highly influential researchers by citation impact, with names like Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and Jennifer Doudna often cited as historical greats or modern leaders in their fields, but the list itself changes yearly and covers all disciplines.
 

What is the h-index for a full professor?

Assistant professors are expected to have at least 6–15 depending on the field. Full professors typically have an H-index of 25 or higher. In highly competitive fields, distinguished researchers may have H-indices above 40 or even 50.

Can you improve your h-index?

Promote your work strategically

Visibility boosts readership, which can lead to more citations. Share your work on platforms like ResearchGate, Academic.edu, and Google Scholar. Use social media like X or LinkedIn to highlight publications.

How many citations are good for a professor?

The difference between professors and associate professors begin rather to manifest at higher levels of performance, above around 15 publications and 100 citations. In numbers of individuals, 316 have more than 15 publications and 300 have more than 100 citations.

What is better than the h-index?

Other Citation Index Numbers

Alternatives to the h-index include: g-index: Gives more weight to highly cited publications. The original h-index is insensitive to high "outliers" -- a few papers that have very high citation counts will not sway the h-index score (much).

Is 4.8 a good impact factor?

Yes, a 4.8 impact factor is generally considered very good, often placing a journal in the top quartile (Q1) for its field, though its quality depends on the specific academic discipline, as impact factors vary significantly between fields like medicine vs. humanities. It signifies high citation rates, suggesting influence and quality, but should be viewed relative to other journals in the same subject category, not in isolation. 

What is the average h-index for a PhD student?

On average and good H-index for a PhD student is between 1 and 5, a postdoc between 2 and 17, an assistant professor between 4 – 35 and a full professor typically about 30+. Our comprehensive blog delves into the nuances of the h-index, its relevance in academic promotions, and the challenges it presents. What is this?

How many citations on Google Scholar are good?

With 10 or more citations, your work is now in the top 24% of the most cited work worldwide; this increased to the top 1.8% as you reach 100 or more citations. Main take home message: the average citation per manuscript is clearly below 10!

Is 7.1 a good impact factor?

An Impact Factor of 7.1 means that Age and Ageing is now the fifth highest-ranked journal in the Geriatrics and Gerontology category. It has retained its place as the highest-impact clinical geriatrics journal in the world.

Is 300 citations a lot?

300 references is certainly excessive for anything other than a book. Other than that, it very much depends on what kind of journal and kind of article you are trying to publish. A good approach to figuring out what is acceptable is to simply look through the articles you are citing.

Is 20 citations a lot?

In fact, in Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics, even for papers in ISI listed journals that are 10 years old, 4-5 ISI citations might be enough to put an article in the top 50% most cited papers in their fields, around 20 citations puts you in the top 10%.

Is 150 citations a lot?

Many journal author guidelines recommend 50–150 references for full review articles. Recent journal-level examples: Discipline-specific journals provide better benchmarks than cross-discipline averages.

What is the average h-index of Nobel winners?

Hirsch calculated the h-index of Nobel prize winners and found 84% of them to have an h-index of at least 30; this holds for 22 (60%) of our Dutch professors!

Who is the most cited scholar ever?

The milestone makes machine-learning trailblazer Yoshua Bengio the most cited researcher on Google Scholar.

Who is the youngest scientist ever?

Meet Gitanjali Rao— Indo-America youngest scientist- inventor who's changing the world before age 20 At just 11, she engineered a functional scientific device that won a national science competition—remarkable not just for her age, but for its real-world impact.