Article
A “Citation Surplus” Should Be Added to the h-Index
Open Access Library Journal
(2017)
Abstract
The h-index is the largest number h such that h publications have at least h
citations. The index reflects both the number of publications and the number
of citations per publication. One unperceived deficiency of this metric is that
it is Pareto-inefficient. A “citation surplus” would be absent and, thus, the
h-index would be efficient for a researcher if all his h papers that are equal or
above his h-index received exactly h citations. This inefficiency would not be
of great concern if those h papers were normally distributed. However, the
rank from top to bottom does not decay exponentially. The decay follows the
power law known in the literature as Lotka’s law. To remedy this deficiency, I
suggest the h-index be supplemented by a researcher’s citation surplus.
Keywords
- h-Index,
- Scientific Productivity,
- Scientometrics,
- Pareto-Efficiency
Disciplines
Publication Date
2017
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1103959
Citation Information
Sergio Da Silva. "A “Citation Surplus” Should Be Added to the h-Index" Open Access Library Journal Vol. 4 Iss. e3959 (2017) p. 1 - 5 ISSN: 2333-9721 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/sergiodasilva/178/