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Analyzing research performance: proposition of a new complementary index

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  • Shaon Sahoo

    (CEA, INAC/SPSMS)

Abstract

A researcher collaborating with many groups will normally have more papers (and thus higher citations and h-index) than a researcher spending all his/her time working alone or in a small group. While analyzing an author’s research merit, it is therefore not enough to consider only the collective impact of the published papers, it is also necessary to quantify his/her share in the impact. For this quantification, here I propose the I-index which is defined as an author’s percentage share in the total citations that his/her papers have attracted. It is argued that this I-index does not directly depend on the most of the subjective issues like an author’s influence, affiliation, seniority or career break. A simple application of the Central Limit Theorem shows that, the scheme of equidistribution of credit among the coauthors of a paper will give us the most probable value of the I-index (with an associated small standard deviation which decreases with increasing h-index). I show that the total citations ( $$N_{\text {c}}$$ N c ), the h-index and the I-index are three independent parameters (within their bounds), and together they give a comprehensive idea of an author’s overall research performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Shaon Sahoo, 2016. "Analyzing research performance: proposition of a new complementary index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(2), pages 489-504, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:108:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-016-1988-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-016-1988-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. J. E. Hirsch, 2010. "An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output that takes into account the effect of multiple coauthorship," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 85(3), pages 741-754, December.
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    6. Ausloos, M., 2015. "Assessing the true role of coauthors in the h-index measure of an author scientific impact," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 422(C), pages 136-142.
    7. Serge Galam, 2011. "Tailor based allocations for multiple authorship: a fractional gh-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 89(1), pages 365-379, October.
    8. Akshaya Kumar Biswal, 2013. "An Absolute Index (Ab-index) to Measure a Researcher’s Useful Contributions and Productivity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-10, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Rahman, Mohammad Tariqur & Regenstein, Joe Mac & Kassim, Noor Lide Abu & Haque, Nazmul, 2017. "The need to quantify authors’ relative intellectual contributions in a multi-author paper," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 275-281.
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    4. Yves Fassin, 2020. "The HF-rating as a universal complement to the h-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(2), pages 965-990, November.

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