IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/infome/v5y2011i4p489-497.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Empirical study of the growth dynamics in real career h-index sequences

Author

Listed:
  • Wu, Jiang
  • Lozano, Sergi
  • Helbing, Dirk

Abstract

Based on historical citation data from the ISI Web of Science, this paper introduces a methodology to automatically calculate and classify the real career h-index sequences of scientists. Such a classification is based on the convexity–concavity features of the different temporal segments of h-index sequences. Five categories are identified, namely convex, concave, S-shaped, IS-shaped and linear. As a case study, the h-index sequences of several Nobel Prize winners in Medicine, Chemistry and Economics are investigated. Two proposed factors influencing the growth of the h-index, namely the “freshness” of the h-index core and changes in the rank positions of papers near the h-index point are studied. It is found that the h-index core's “freshness” is particularly relevant to the growth of the h-index. Moreover, although in general more publications lead to an increase of the h-index, the key role is played by those papers near the h-index point.

Suggested Citation

  • Wu, Jiang & Lozano, Sergi & Helbing, Dirk, 2011. "Empirical study of the growth dynamics in real career h-index sequences," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 489-497.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:infome:v:5:y:2011:i:4:p:489-497
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2011.02.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751157711000289
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.joi.2011.02.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leo Egghe, 2009. "Comparative study of h-index sequences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(2), pages 311-320, November.
    2. Burrell, Quentin L., 2007. "Hirsch's h-index: A stochastic model," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 16-25.
    3. Quentin L. Burrell, 2007. "Hirsch index or Hirsch rate? Some thoughts arising from Liang’s data," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 73(1), pages 19-28, October.
    4. Ye, Fred Y. & Rousseau, Ronald, 2008. "The power law model and total career h-index sequences," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 288-297.
    5. Liu, Yuxian & Rousseau, Ronald, 2008. "Definitions of time series in citation analysis with special attention to the h-index," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 202-210.
    6. Liming Liang, 2006. "h-index sequence and h-index matrix: Constructions and applications," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 69(1), pages 153-159, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liu, Yu & Yang, Yongliang, 2014. "Empirical study of L-Sequence: The basic h-index sequence for cumulative publications with consideration of the yearly citation performance," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 478-485.
    2. Mannella, Riccardo & Rossi, Paolo, 2013. "On the time dependence of the h-index," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 176-182.
    3. Basso, Antonella & di Tollo, Giacomo, 2022. "Prediction of UK research excellence framework assessment by the departmental h-index," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 296(3), pages 1036-1049.
    4. Zhu, Wanying & Jin, Ching & Ma, Yifang & Xu, Cong, 2023. "Earlier recognition of scientific excellence enhances future achievements and promotes persistence," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).
    5. Dašić Predrag, 2015. "State and Analysis of Scientific Journals in the Field of “Economic Sciences” for the Period 1995-2014," Economic Themes, Sciendo, vol. 53(4), pages 547-581, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liu, Yu & Yang, Yongliang, 2014. "Empirical study of L-Sequence: The basic h-index sequence for cumulative publications with consideration of the yearly citation performance," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 478-485.
    2. Quentin L. Burrell, 2012. "Comments on “A publication index that is independent of age” by Abt," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(3), pages 1059-1060, June.
    3. Ye, Fred Y. & Rousseau, Ronald, 2008. "The power law model and total career h-index sequences," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 288-297.
    4. Leo Egghe, 2009. "Comparative study of h-index sequences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(2), pages 311-320, November.
    5. Yuxian Liu & I. K. Ravichandra Rao & Ronald Rousseau, 2009. "Empirical series of journal h-indices: The JCR category Horticulture as a case study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 80(1), pages 59-74, July.
    6. Pablo Dorta-González & María-Isabel Dorta-González, 2011. "Central indexes to the citation distribution: a complement to the h-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 88(3), pages 729-745, September.
    7. Claus-Christian Carbon, 2011. "The Carbon_h-Factor: Predicting Individuals' Research Impact at Early Stages of Their Career," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(12), pages 1-7, December.
    8. Lin Zhang & Wolfgang Glänzel, 2012. "Where demographics meets scientometrics: towards a dynamic career analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(2), pages 617-630, May.
    9. Eduardo A. Oliveira & Enrico A. Colosimo & Daniella R. Martelli & Isabel G. Quirino & Maria Christina L. Oliveira & Leonardo S. Lima & Ana Cristina Simões e Silva & Hercílio Martelli-Júnior, 2012. "Comparison of Brazilian researchers in clinical medicine: are criteria for ranking well-adjusted?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 90(2), pages 429-443, February.
    10. Chun-Ting Zhang, 2009. "The e-Index, Complementing the h-Index for Excess Citations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(5), pages 1-4, May.
    11. Liu, Yuxian & Rousseau, Ronald, 2008. "Definitions of time series in citation analysis with special attention to the h-index," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 202-210.
    12. Miguel A. García-Pérez, 2009. "A multidimensional extension to Hirsch’s h-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(3), pages 779-785, December.
    13. Marek Gągolewski & Przemysław Grzegorzewski, 2009. "A geometric approach to the construction of scientific impact indices," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(3), pages 617-634, December.
    14. Quentin L. Burrell, 2007. "Hirsch index or Hirsch rate? Some thoughts arising from Liang’s data," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 73(1), pages 19-28, October.
    15. Fred Y. Ye, 2009. "An investigation on mathematical models of the h-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(2), pages 493-498, November.
    16. Zehra Taşkın, 2021. "Forecasting the future of library and information science and its sub-fields," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(2), pages 1527-1551, February.
    17. Nair, Gopalan M. & Turlach, Berwin A., 2012. "The stochastic h-index," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 80-87.
    18. Mingers, John & Leydesdorff, Loet, 2015. "A review of theory and practice in scientometrics," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 246(1), pages 1-19.
    19. Rousseau, Ronald & Hu, Xiaojun, 2013. "Two time series, their meaning and some applications," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 603-610.
    20. Fred Y. Ye & Ronald Rousseau, 2010. "Probing the h-core: an investigation of the tail–core ratio for rank distributions," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 84(2), pages 431-439, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:infome:v:5:y:2011:i:4:p:489-497. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/joi .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.