Glänzel, Wolfgang

Persson, Olle

English

Research Papers in Economics

15
© 2005, International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI)
H-INDEX FOR PRICE MEDALISTS
by Wolfgang Glänzel and Olle Persson
     Introduction
Bibliometrics has become a proven tool in
research evaluation and policy relevant science
studies – at least what concerns the performance
assessment of countries, institutes or research
groups. Bibliometricians were always shunning
the evaluation of individual scientists. And rightly
so. Bibliometricians might be afraid of exposing
themselves to possibly heavy reactions on the
part of the concerned scientists. Breaking
anonymity is only one aspect. The questionability
of reliability, the lacking methodological
groundwork of how to treat and interpret
statistics gained from small publication sets is
another one. Scientists at times believe that
bibliometric methods – as they are – may not be
applied to their particular research field. At least,
this is an often-heard argument. However, a
remedy seems to be at hand. Recently, Jorge E.
Hirsch (2005) has suggested a new indicator,
one single index for the assessment of the
research performance of individual scientists. The
‘h-index’ is an extremely simple and compre-
hensible indicator that is based on quite long
publication periods and variable citation
windows. It can be applied to any publication
set, and can be reproduced by anybody. Thus
nobody could use the above arguments against
its application to individual scientists. Thus
Hirsch’s article has almost immediately provoked
reactions on the part of the scientific community
(Ball, 2005, Diniz Batista et al., 2005, Popov,
2005, Bornmann and Daniel, 2005, Braun et
al., 2005, van Raan, 2005, Glänzel, 2005a,b)
and the reception was rather positive.
Nonetheless, first concerns were articulated as
well (van Raan, 2005, Glänzel 2006). In a recent
paper, Glänzel (2006) has summarised some
pros and cons of this indicator.
As mentioned above, the h-index has been
designed as indicators of individual performance
and it is predestined for purpose indeed.
According to the definition by Jorge E. Hirsch,
“a scientist has index h if h of his/her N papers
have at least h citations each, and the other (N
– h) papers have fewer than h citations each”.
When Hirsch published his paper in August
2005, he had an h-index of 49. From his own
observations he concluded that in physics an h-
index of 20 after 20 years of scientific activity,
characterises a successful scientist, h = 40
characterises outstanding researchers and h= 60
or more characterizes unique scientists. Diniz
Batista et al. (2005) have shown that the h-
index is quite sensitive to the science field. The
question arises of what might be the standard
in our own field. For an interdisciplinary subfield
of the social sciences we expect, in general, a
somewhat lower h-index. In order to shed some
light on this discussion we have looked at the
h-index of all still active Price Medal awardees.
Since the Price Medal is periodically awarded by
the international journal Scientometrics to
scientists with outstanding contributions to the
fields of quantitative studies of science we expect
that their h-indexes will characterise them as
most profilic and highly cited authors..
 Methods and results
We have selected all journal papers of the active
Price Medallists published in the last 20 years,
namely in the period January 1986 – August
2005. Since we have retrieved data in early
September, we had to restrict the analysis to the
last available update of the Web of Science®
(Thomson – ISI, Philadelphia, PA, USA). We have
calculated the h-index for all Price Medallists who
are still active in quantitative studies of science
and we have ignored papers that are not
relevant for the field. In what follows we are
presenting the results of our search in
chronological order of awarding below. We
would like to stress again that the data reflect
the situation of August 2005.16
© 2005, International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI)
Tibor
Braun
is director of the
Information Sci-
ence and Sciento-
metric Research
Unit (ISSRU) at the
Hungarian Aca-
demy of Sciences.
He has founded
this Hungarian
Research Centre almost 30 years ago.
Braun is also Professor of Chemistry at
the Loránd Eötvös University. He is the
Editor-in-Chief of the journal Scientomet-
rics and the international Journal of
Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry. In
1975, he has also been awarded the
George Hevesy Medal which is the pre-
mier international award of excellence in
radioanalytical and nuclear chemistry.
Rank Cites PY
1 120 1989
2 78 1986
3 57 1990
4 43 1992
5 33 1988
6 31 1995
7 29 1995
8 27 1988
9 27 1987
10 25 2000
11 24 1994
12 23 1987
13 22 1987
14 21 1994
15 18 1986
16 18 1993
17 17 2000
18 17 1988
Henry
Small
is Chief Scientist
and Director of
Research Ser-
vice Group at
Thomson ISI.
He is one of the
foremost schol-
ars in the area
of developing
and applying co-citation analysis. This
important work has resulted in a better
understanding of the structure,
relationships, and evolution of the
sciences. He has been named the sixth
President of ISSI for the period of four
years in 2003.
Rank Cites PY
1 79 1985
2 64 1999
3 26 1986
4 22 1993
5 21 1997
6 18 1994
7 15 1999
8 12 1986
9 10 1989
10 8 1998
Eugene
Garfield
is one of the
‘fathers’ of scien-
tometrics and a
scientific infor-
mation pioneer,
awarded the
first Derek de
Solla Price Medal
in 1984. He is
Founder & Chairman Emeritus of the
Institute for Scientific Information.
Garfield is the president and editor-in-
chief of the journal ‘The Scientist’.
Rank Cites PY
1 122 1989
2 104 1986
3 86 1990
4 84 1988
5 79 1988
6 67 1987
7 57 1999
8 29 1994
9 27 1987
10 27 1987
11 26 1987
12 23 1994
13 20 1986
14 18 1986
15 18 1986
16 17 1996
17 15 1993
Anthony F . J.
van Raan
is Professor of
Quantitative Stu-
dies of Science at
the University of
Leiden, The
Netherlands. He
is the Director of
the Centre for
Science and
Technology Studies (CWTS) at University
of Leiden since 1985. He is editor of the
international journal Research
Evaluation.
Rank Cites PY
1 46 1991
2 46 1996
3 33 1991
4 29 1990
5 29 1990
6 25 1993
7 22 1998
8 22 1995
9 21 2000
10 21 1997
11 19 2001
12 19 1994
13 18 1994
14 17 1998
15 17 1993
16 16 1993
17 15 1993
Ben
Martin
is Professor of
Science and
Technology Po-
licy Studies and
Director of SPRU
at University of
Sussex. He is one
of the pioneers
of foresight in
science and technology.
Rank Cites PY
1 66 1997
2 33 1987
3 30 1995
4 29 2001
5 27 1996
6 24 1988
7 21 1999
8 18 1986
9 16 1986
10 15 1996
11 13 1991
12 9 1987
Francis
Narin
established CHI
in 1968, an in-
ternationally re-
cognized re-
search consul-
tancy specializ-
ing in develop-
ing evaluation
tools and indi-
cators for science and technology
analysis. He is recognised as one of the
world’s leading experts on science and
technology analysis. Narin started with
the analysis of science in the 1970s,
before developing evaluations of
patents in the 1980s and later, in the
1990s, analysing linkage between
science and technology.
Rank Cites PY
1 107 1997
2 94 1987
3 70 1991
4 56 1992
5 51 1991
6 34 2000
7 33 1987
8 33 1999
9 33 1989
10 26 1994
11 25 1988
12 25 1996
13 24 1988
14 23 1995
15 18 1994
16 18 1998
17 14 199617
© 2005, International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI)
András
Schubert
is Senior Scien-
tist at the Insti-
tute for Science
Policy Research,
Hungarian Aca-
demy of Sci-
ences in Buda-
pest (Hungary).
He is Editor of
the journal Scientometrics. Jointly with
Tibor Braun and Wolfgang Glänzel, he
developed the concept of Relative
Indicators (1983).
Rank Cites PY
1 120 1989
2 78 1986
3 74 2002
4 57 1990
5 33 1988
6 27 1988
7 27 1987
8 25 2000
9 24 1994
10 23 1987
11 22 1987
12 21 1994
13 18 1986
14 18 1986
15 18 1993
16 17 2000
17 17 1988
18 16 2001
Wolfgang
Glänzel
is Senior Re-
search Fellow
at the Steun-
punt O&O Sta-
tistieken  and
Professor at the
Katholieke Uni-
versiteit Leuven
(Belgium). He is
also Senior Scientist at the Institute for
Science Policy Research, Hungarian
Academy of Sciences in Budapest. He is
co-editor of the journal Scientometrics
and Secretary/Treasurer of ISSI.
Rank Cites PY
1 120 1989
2 54 1988
3 33 1988
4 31 1995
5 29 1995
6 27 1995
7 27 1988
8 27 1987
9 24 1994
10 23 1987
11 22 2001
12 22 1987
13 21 1994
14 19 1994
15 18 1986
16 18 1986
17 18 1993
18 17 1994
Henk F .
Moed
is Senior Re-
searcher at the
Centre for Sci-
ence and Tech-
nology Studies
(CWTS) in Leiden
(The Nether-
lands). Since
1981, he works
on science indicators and quantitative
studies of science at Leiden University.
Current work in projects involves
bibliometric analysis in relation to
aspects of research performance.
Recently, he has published a book on
“Citation Analysis in Research
Evaluation” (Springer, 2005).
Rank Cites PY
1 53 1995
2 52 1996
3 52 1995
4 46 1991
5 33 1991
6 29 1990
7 25 1989
8 23 1998
9 23 1999
10 23 2002
11 23 1996
12 22 1991
13 20 1999
14 19 2001
15 18 1989
16 15 2002
Loet
Leydesdorff
is Senior Lectur-
er at the De-
partment of
Communica-
tion Studies,
University of
Amsterdam.
Jointly with
Henry Etzko-
witz, he developed the Triple Helix
model of University-Industry-Govern-
ment relations.
Rank Cites PY
1 69 2000
2 26 1998
3 24 1986
4 22 1999
5 21 1989
6 20 1987
7 19 1989
8 17 1991
9 16 1996
10 15 1994
11 14 1997
12 13 1993
13 13 1989
14 12 1994
Leo
Egghe
is Professor and
Chief Librarian
at Limburgs U-
niversitair Cen-
trum in Diepen-
beek (Belgium).
He teaches
part-time at the
University of
Antwerp in the Library and Information
Science Programme. Recently, he
developed the theory of Lotkaian
informetrics.
Rank Cites PY
1 43 1990
2 35 1992
3 35 2000
4 21 1992
5 18 1991
6 17 1986
7 16 1995
8 16 1986
9 16 1988
10 15 1993
11 13 1990
12 12 1996
13 12 1988
Ronald
Rousseau
is Professor at
the Catholic
School for High-
er Education
Bruges-Ostend
and Guest Pro-
fessor at the
School for Lib-
rary and Infor-
mation Science (University Antwerp).
Jointly with Leo Egghe he is one of the
leading theoreticians of Informetrics.
Rank Cites PY
1 23 1996
2 18 1991
3 16 1995
4 16 1988
5 15 1987
6 15 1992
7 14 2003
8 13 1994
9 12 1996
10 12 1990
11 11 1999
12 11 198918
© 2005, International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI)
Howard D.
White
He was distin-
guished profes-
sor at Drexel
University (USA)
till 2002. He is
now professor
emeritus. Joint-
ly with Belver
Griffith he deve-
loped the author co-citation analysis
(ACA) in the early 1980s.
Rank Cites PY
1 105 1998
2 100 1989
3 43 1997
4 21 1987
5 19 2001
6 15 1987
7 14 1986
8 12 1996
9 10 1990
10 10 2003
11 10 1990
Peter
Ingwersen
is Research Pro-
fessor at the
Department of
Information
Studies Royal
School of Lib-
rary and Infor-
mation Science
(Denmark). His
main field of research activity is informa-
tion retrieval in which he has published
also several books. Ingwersen is one of
the founders of “Webometrics” (1997).
Rank Cites PY
1 118 1996
2 89 1998
3 78 1997
4 51 2001
5 36 1997
6 29 1987
7 27 1997
8 17 2000
9 15 1996
10 13 1997
11 10 1992
 Concluding remarks
The h-indexes of the Price Medallists are clearly lower than what
Hirsch reported for physics. However, this result does not strike
unexpectedly; both publication activity and citation impact in
our field is below the “standard” in physics. The h values in
bibliometrics/informetrics range roughly between 10 and 20.
We have checked the data in November again. The h-index of
a few Price awardees increased by one, however, the genera
picture has not changed. Furthermore, the “new-fledged” Price
Medallists tend to have lower h values than the “old” ones.
We have to keep in mind that the starting point was 1986
and that the h-index might have become somewhat different,
especially for the early Price Medal winners, if we had covered
the back years even if we take into account that quantitative
science studies were not a truly established discipline with
adequate communication channels in the 1970s. Thus one
might conclude that a scientist with an h-index of 10 and above
in quantitative science studies can justly be considered a
possible candidate for one of the future awards.
 References
P . Ball (2005), Index aims for fair ranking of scientists, Nature 436, 900.
L. Bornmann, H.-D. Daniel (2005), Does the h-index for ranking of scientists
really work? Scientometrics, 65 (3), 391–392.
T. Braun, W. Glänzel, A. Schubert (2005), A Hirsch-type index for journals, The
Scientist, 19 (22), 8.
P . Diniz Batista, M. Guimaraes Campiteli, O. Kinouchi, A. Souto Martinez
(2005), A complementary index to quantify an individual’s scientific
research output, arXiv:physics/0509048, accessible via http://arxiv.org/
abs/physics/0509048.
W. Glänzel (2005), The H-index – a new measure of publication activity and
citation impact, unpublished material.
W. Glänzel (2006), On the opportunities and limitations of the H-index;
Science Focus, No.1, forthcoming.
J.E. Hirsch (2005), An index to quantify an individual’s scientific output,
arXiv:physics/0508025, accessible via
http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0508025.
S. B. Popov (2005), A parameter to quantify dynamics of a researcher’s
scientific activity, arXiv:physics/0508113, accessible via
http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0508113.
A.F.J. van Raan (2005), Comparison of the Hirsch-index with standard
bibliometric indicators and with peer judgment for 147 chemistry
research groups, arXiv:physics/0511206, accessible via
http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0511206.
ISSI Newsletter is published by ISSI ( http://www.issi-society.info/ ). Contributors to the newsletter should contact the editorial board by email.
Wolfgang Glänzel: wolfgang.glanzel@econ.kuleuven.be | Ronald Rousseau: ronald.rousseau@khbo.be | Liwen Vaughan: lvaughan@uwo.ca
Aparna Basu: basu.aparna@rediffmail.com | Balázs Schlemmer: balazs.schlemmer@econ.kuleuven.be
Accepted contributions are moderated by the board. Guidelines for contributors can be found at: http://www.issi-society.info/editorial.html
Opinions expressed by contributors to the Newsletter do not necessarily reflect the official position of ISSI. Although all published material is
expected to conform to ethical standards, no responsibility is assumed by ISSI and the Editorial Board for any injury and/or damage to persons
or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas
contained in the material therein.

A complementary index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output, arXiv:physics/0509048, accessible via http://arxiv.org/ abs/physics/0509048.

A Hirsch-type index for journals,

An index to quantify an individual’s scientific output, arXiv:physics/0508025, accessible via http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0508025.

Index aims for fair ranking of scientists,

On the opportunities and limitations of the H-index; Science Focus,

Popov (2005), A parameter to quantify dynamics of a researcher’s scientific activity, arXiv:physics/0508113, accessible via http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0508113.

The H-index – a new measure of publication activity and citation impact, unpublished material.

H-Index for Price Medalists.

https://lirias.kuleuven.be/bitstream/123456789/167652/3/H-indexforprice.pdf

H-Index for Price Medalists.

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