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Do researchers know what the h-index is? And how do they estimate its importance?

Author

Listed:
  • Pantea Kamrani

    (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)

  • Isabelle Dorsch

    (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)

  • Wolfgang G. Stock

    (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
    Karl Franzens University Graz)

Abstract

The h-index is a widely used scientometric indicator on the researcher level working with a simple combination of publication and citation counts. In this article, we pursue two goals, namely the collection of empirical data about researchers’ personal estimations of the importance of the h-index for themselves as well as for their academic disciplines, and on the researchers’ concrete knowledge on the h-index and the way of its calculation. We worked with an online survey (including a knowledge test on the calculation of the h-index), which was finished by 1081 German university professors. We distinguished between the results for all participants, and, additionally, the results by gender, generation, and field of knowledge. We found a clear binary division between the academic knowledge fields: For the sciences and medicine the h-index is important for the researchers themselves and for their disciplines, while for the humanities and social sciences, economics, and law the h-index is considerably less important. Two fifths of the professors do not know details on the h-index or wrongly deem to know what the h-index is and failed our test. The researchers’ knowledge on the h-index is much smaller in the academic branches of the humanities and the social sciences. As the h-index is important for many researchers and as not all researchers are very knowledgeable about this author-specific indicator, it seems to be necessary to make researchers more aware of scholarly metrics literacy.

Suggested Citation

  • Pantea Kamrani & Isabelle Dorsch & Wolfgang G. Stock, 2021. "Do researchers know what the h-index is? And how do they estimate its importance?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(7), pages 5489-5508, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:126:y:2021:i:7:d:10.1007_s11192-021-03968-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-021-03968-1
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    2. Evelyn Eika & Frode Eika Sandnes, 2022. "Starstruck by journal prestige and citation counts? On students’ bias and perceptions of trustworthiness according to clues in publication references," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(11), pages 6363-6390, November.

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