{"id":26344,"date":"2019-10-23T22:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T16:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/?p=26344"},"modified":"2019-11-04T21:44:03","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T15:44:03","slug":"how-to-successfully-boost-your-h-index","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/how-to-successfully-boost-your-h-index\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Successfully Boost Your H-Index"},"content":{"rendered":"

How successful are you as a researcher? How good are your publications? What is the impact of your work?<\/p>\n

There are, of course, many different ways to answer these questions. Traditionally, the strength of a researcher\u2019s career has often been judged on their publications. Publications in a journal with a high impact factor are considered to be the most prestigious. The impact factor of a journal is based on the average number of citations that articles in the journal receive.<\/p>\n

But is there a way to measure the success of an individual, rather than a journal or institution? The h-index offers one way<\/a> to do this.<\/p>\n

What is the H-Index?<\/h2>\n

Simply put, the h-index is a number that gives an idea of a researcher\u2019s individual productivity and influence. The number is based on the papers a researcher publishes and the citations those papers get.<\/p>\n

Publishing a lot of highly cited articles will increase your h-index. On the other hand, getting a lot of citations on only one or two papers will not give you a high h-index. For example, if you have an h-index of 7, it means that you have published 7 papers, each of which has been cited at least 7 times. If you are a \u201cone-hit wonder\u201d, with only one paper that has a lot of citations, this will be shown in a low h-index.<\/p>\n

How to Calculate Your H-Index<\/h2>\n

Not sure how to calculate your h-index? Don\u2019t worry, there are several online tools that can help you. For example, you can use Google Scholar\u2019s Citation search<\/a> to track your citations or even Scopus as it offers similar functions<\/a>. You can find some helpful hints and tips on how to use both these services here<\/a>. You could also use any other service that tracks citations, such as Web of Science.<\/p>\n

In Scopus, for example, you simply need to search for the author\u2019s name. Then just click on the correct search result to see details including the h-index.<\/p>\n

Pros and Cons of the H-Index<\/h2>\n

As with all journal metrics, there are pros and cons to representing a researcher\u2019s achievements as a number. You might have already spotted some of these yourself.<\/p>\n

Pros<\/em><\/h3>\n

The h-index offers a useful (and simple) way to compare researchers who are at similar stages in their careers. This could be particularly useful for recruiters or others who are not from the same field as the researcher.<\/p>\n

Using the h-index would stop a researcher who has lots of low-impact publications appearing to be more productive than someone who has fewer publications with a higher impact. This leads us to the second pro: h-index is currently the only way to combine productivity and impact in a single metric.<\/p>\n

Cons<\/em><\/h3>\n

One problem with the h-index is that is cannot be used to compare researchers in different fields. It is also open to being unfairly manipulated. For example, you might get a group of researchers who often cite each other\u2019s work simply to increase their h-index.<\/p>\n

The h-index does not tell you whether a researcher was a sole author on a paper, or one of a huge group. This means that someone\u2019s h-index could be boosted by work they had little to do with.<\/p>\n

Finally, a big drawback of the h-index is that it tells you nothing about the science or ideas behind a researcher\u2019s achievements.<\/p>\n

Should You Care About Your H-Index?<\/h2>\n

The h-index is not perfect. So, should you really care about yours?<\/p>\n

The answer is probably, yes. These days, it is common for academic jobs<\/a> to require a certain h-index. As most researchers know, competition for academic jobs, particularly post docs, is very high. Giving a minimum h-index is a simple way to eliminate job seekers who won\u2019t make the grade.<\/p>\n

A strong h-index could also help you get promoted, gain memberships to scientific organizations, or win research grants. It helps people who are not experts in your field to understand what you have achieved.<\/p>\n

But what can you do if your h-index is not looking great?<\/p>\n

Boosting Your H-Index<\/h2>\n

There are many ways to boost your h-index. Some of these are either illegal or immoral. For example, frequent\/irrelevant self-citations will boost your h-index, but does not actually have value.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there are several acceptable ways to boost your h-index.<\/p>\n