1. www.le.ac.uk/library Demonstrate your impact with the h-index Ian Rowlands University Library Research Festival 2014 Research Bytes 5

2. A new phenomenon 3. A new phenomenon Numbers of published papers on the h-index 6 19 31 63 115 145 173 224 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Papers Source: Scopus July 2013 4. What is the h-index? How do I find mine? Interpreting the h-index 5. What is the h-index? This slide contains an embedded video. Hover your cursor at the bottom of this screen and click play. 6. What is the h-index? A single number that starts with your first citation and accumulates over your research career It starts easy but gets progressively harder Summarises your broad research impact 7. Advantages of the h-index Simple: easy to generate and easy to understand Valid: correlates well with career achievements and soft judgments about reputation Credible: difficult to game Flexible: any set of papers can have an h-index 8. How do I find mine? 9. How do I find mine? If you have an IRIS account, go to My Profile 10. Professor Michael R Barer Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation All links at Leicester: 176 H-Index: 24 (Web of Science); 26 (Scopus) 11. Professor Michael R Barer Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation All links at Leicester: 176 H-Index: 24 (Web of Science); 26 (Scopus) 12. Professor Michael R Barer Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation All links at Leicester: 176 H-Index: 24 (Web of Science); 26 (Scopus) Web of Science and Scopus index different journals and may give you different h-indexes. For this reason it is important to always quote your source database, as above. 13. Maximising your IRIS h-index IRIS calculates your h-index `on the fly based on your list of approved publications If you feel your h-index is too low, make sure that your IRIS profile includes papers written at other universities doesnt have any papers pending approval is enabled for automatic search in Scopus and Web of Science (in Settings) has all your name variants and details of previous addresses (better still, use researcher identifiers) 14. If you dont have an IRIS account Find your h-index in Web of Science or Scopus by running a comprehensive author search selecting all your publications running the citation analysis tool Google Scholar works differently: you need to set up a personal citation profile via your Google account 15. Interpreting the h-index 16. Interpreting the h-index Tom 60 papers 6,000 citations 100 citations per paper Harry 60 papers 6,000 citations 100 citations per paper 17. Interpreting the h-index Harry 60 papers 6,000 citations 100 mean citations per paper Tom 60 papers 6,000 citations 100 mean citations per paper h-index = 20 18. Interpreting the h-index Harry 60 papers 6,000 citations 100 mean citations per paper Tom 60 papers 6,000 citations 100 mean citations per paper h-index = 20 h-index = 40! 19. 0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1 11 21 31 41 51 Tom (h=40) Harry (h=20) Rank order of paper Numberofcitations Interpreting the h-index 20. The h-index measures consistency not absolute impact. 0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1 11 21 31 41 51 Tom (h=40) Harry (h=20) Rank order of paper Numberofcitationsforeachpaper Interpreting the h-index 21. The h-index measures consistency not absolute impact. Quite a few Nobel laureates have fair to middling h-indexes. 0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1 11 21 31 41 51 Tom (h=40) Harry (h=20) Rank order of paper Numberofcitationsforeachpaper Interpreting the h-index 22. Some dos Do take care to check your publication lists for accuracy and completeness: the h-index is not externally audited Do check out Scopus and Web of Science: you may be falling between the cracks Do remember that h measures consistency rather than `absolute quality 23. Some donts Dont compare your h-index with that of an older or younger colleague Dont compare your h-index with someone working in a different field Dont put too much emphasis on a single number 24. Useful links How to find your h-index in Scopus http://tinyurl.com/h-scopus How to find your h-index in Web of Science http://tinyurl.com/h-websci How to find your h-index in Google Scholar http://tinyurl.com/h-scholar