The h-index simultaneously measures productivity and academic influence by providing a single value as a ratio of the number of outputs and number of citations e.g. if an author has 10 publications with 10 or more citations, they will have a h-index of 10.
The h-index must be used with caution:
Variations of the h-index, intended to address limitations of the h-index, are the g-index and the m-index:
The h-index is usually calculated for individual researchers but can also be calculated for other entities such as a research group or a journal.
Citation behaviour varies between disciplines. As a non-field normalised metric, the h-index should only be used to benchmark entities in similar disciplines.
The h-index will vary for the same research entity in different database sources. Comparisons should therefore only be made from a single source. See appropriate use of publication and citation metrics.
Recommended sources for calculating the h-index, the g-index and the m-index are listed below.
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