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UMSL Faculty Publishing Toolkit

Information about scholarly publishing for researchers at the University of Missouri-St. Louis

Author-level Metrics

Author-level metrics help track an individual researcher's impact in an academic discipline. This is traditionally calculated by using the number of times their scholarly publications are cited by other researchers. These impact factors can help in promotion and tenure, as well as aiding in funding and grants.

H-Index

The h-index, developed in 2005 by J.E. Hirsch, is one of the most widely used author-level-metrics that quantifies research output by measuring author productivity and impact. For a researcher to have an h-index, they must have a certain number of publications (h) that have received at least h citations.  For example, an h-index of 15 means the researcher has at least 15 publications that have been cited at least 15 times each.

Where can I find an author's h-index?

To find an author's h-index in Scopus, do the following:

  1. Go to Scopus
  2. Once in Scopus, click the option for Authors


     
  3. Type in the name of the author and click on Search
  4. Click the name of the correct author if more than one has the same name
  5. This will bring you into the author's details page. You can view their h-index, create graphs of output, and use the other tools to measure an author's reach and impact.

To find an author's h-index in Web of Science, do the following:

  1. Go to Web of Science
  2. Once in Web of Science, click the option for Author Search


     
  3. Enter the name of the author and click on the button Select Research Domain
  4. Select a research domain, if you wish, and click on the button Select Organization
  5. Select the organization and click on Finish Search
  6. On the results page, click on the link Create Citation Report located in the right-hand corner


     
  7. This will bring you to the report page where you can view the author's h-index and other metrics

To find an author's h-index in Google Scholar, do the following:

  1. Go to Google Scholar
  2. Place a search for the name of an author or the title of a work
  3. Under the work's title, click the name of the author if it's underlined (this indicates they have a Google Scholar profile)


     
  4. This will bring you to the author's Google Scholar public profile page where you can view the author's h-index and other metrics

G-Index

The g-index, created by Leo Egghe as a response to the h-index, is an author-level metric which places greater weight on highly-cited articles.  You can view an author's g-index by downloading a free citation analysis software program called Publish or Perish.  

i10-Index

The i10-index was created by Google Scholar as an index to rank author impact. Simply, it is the number of publications the researcher has written that have at least 10 citations.

To locate an author's i10-index, do the following:

  1. Go to Google Scholar
  2. Place a search for the name of an author or the title of a work
  3. Under the work's title, click the name of the author if it's underlined (this indicates they have a Google Scholar profile)
  4. This will bring you to the author's Google Scholar public profile page where you can view the author's i10-index and other metrics

In order for an author to have their scholarly research included in the i10-index, the author must first have created a public Google Scholar profile. To create a profile in Google Scholar, visit Google Scholar Citations and click on Set up your Google Scholar Profile.