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Ranking university departments using the mean h-index

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  • Themis Lazaridis

    (City College of New York/CUNY)

Abstract

Ranking of universities has lately received considerable attention. However, ranking of departments would give a higher resolution picture of the distribution of quality within each university. In this work the Hirsch (h) index of each faculty in Greek Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, and Physics departments was calculated using the Web of Science and the mean value was used to rank them. This ranking refers to the research performance of each department and thus is most relevant to its doctoral program. The results seem highly meaningful. If performed on a pan-European basis, such rankings could spur healthy competition and could provide a strong motive for meritocratic hiring practices. Technical difficulties and possible extension of this approach to social science and humanities departments are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Themis Lazaridis, 2010. "Ranking university departments using the mean h-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 82(2), pages 211-216, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:82:y:2010:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-009-0048-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-009-0048-4
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    1. Sziklai, Balázs R., 2021. "Ranking institutions within a discipline: The steep mountain of academic excellence," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2).
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    5. Masaru Kuno & Mary Prorok & Shubin Zhang & Huy Huynh & Thurston Miller, 2022. "Deciphering the US News and World Report Ranking of US Chemistry Graduate Programs," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(5), pages 2131-2150, May.
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    7. Nikolaos A. Kazakis, 2014. "Bibliometric evaluation of the research performance of the Greek civil engineering departments in National and European context," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(1), pages 505-525, October.
    8. Maxim Kotsemir & Sergey Shashnov, 2017. "Measuring, analysis and visualization of research capacity of university at the level of departments and staff members," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(3), pages 1659-1689, September.
    9. Nikolaos A. Kazakis & Anastasios D. Diamantidis & Leonidas L. Fragidis & Miltos K. Lazarides, 2014. "Evaluating the research performance of the Greek medical schools using bibliometrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(2), pages 1367-1384, February.
    10. Giovanni Abramo & Ciriaco Andrea D’Angelo & Fulvio Viel, 2013. "The suitability of h and g indexes for measuring the research performance of institutions," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 97(3), pages 555-570, December.
    11. Stelios Katranidis & Theodore Panagiotidis & Costas Zontanos, 2014. "An Evaluation Of The Greek Universities’ Economics Departments," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 173-182, April.
    12. Nikolaos A. Kazakis, 2015. "The research activity of the current faculty of the Greek chemical engineering departments: a bibliometric study in national and international context," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 103(1), pages 229-250, April.
    13. Kuan, Chung-Huei & Huang, Mu-Hsuan & Chen, Dar-Zen, 2013. "Cross-field evaluation of publications of research institutes using their contributions to the fields’ MVPs determined by h-index," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 455-468.
    14. Fiorenzo Franceschini & Domenico Maisano, 2012. "Publication and patent analysis of European researchers in the field of production technology and manufacturing systems," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 93(1), pages 89-100, October.
    15. Ghassan Abdul-Majeed & Wissam Mahmood & Nasri S. M. Namer, 2021. "Measuring research performance of Iraqi universities using Scopus data," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(3), pages 2349-2363, March.
    16. Hiran H. Lathabai & Abhirup Nandy & Vivek Kumar Singh, 2021. "x-index: Identifying core competency and thematic research strengths of institutions using an NLP and network based ranking framework," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(12), pages 9557-9583, December.
    17. Dimitris Kremmydas & Kyriakos Drivas, 2015. "Assembling the research profile of Greek Economic Departments," Working Papers 2015-4, Agricultural University of Athens, Department Of Agricultural Economics.
    18. Petr Praus, 2019. "High-ranked citations percentage as an indicator of publications quality," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(1), pages 319-329, July.
    19. Angel Meseguer-Martinez & Alejandro Ros-Galvez & Alfonso Rosa-Garcia & Jose Antonio Catalan-Alarcon, 2019. "Online video impact of world class universities," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 29(3), pages 519-532, September.
    20. Franceschini, Fiorenzo & Maisano, Domenico, 2011. "Structured evaluation of the scientific output of academic research groups by recent h-based indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 64-74.
    21. Aniruddha Maiti & Sai Shi & Slobodan Vucetic, 2023. "An ablation study on the use of publication venue quality to rank computer science departments," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(8), pages 4197-4218, August.
    22. Marco Geraci & M. Degli Esposti, 2011. "Where do Italian universities stand? An in-depth statistical analysis of national and international rankings," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 87(3), pages 667-681, June.
    23. Aparna Basu & Sumit Kumar Banshal & Khushboo Singhal & Vivek Kumar Singh, 2016. "Designing a Composite Index for research performance evaluation at the national or regional level: ranking Central Universities in India," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(3), pages 1171-1193, June.

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