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An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output

  1. J. E. Hirsch *
  1. Department of Physics, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0319

  1. Communicated by Manuel Cardona, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany, September 1, 2005 (received for review August 15, 2005)

Abstract

I propose the index h, defined as the number of papers with citation number ≥h, as a useful index to characterize the scientific output of a researcher.

Footnotes

  • ↵ * E-mail: jhirsch{at}ucsd.edu.

  • Author contributions: J.E.H. designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.

  • ↵ † Of course, the database used must be complete enough to cover the full period spanned by the individual's publications.

  • ↵ ‡ This was first introduced in the SPIRES database.

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