IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/infome/v6y2012i4p721-728.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Statistical inference on the h-index with an application to top-scientist performance

Author

Listed:
  • Baccini, A.
  • Barabesi, L.
  • Marcheselli, M.
  • Pratelli, L.

Abstract

Despite the huge amount of literature concerning the h-index, few papers have been devoted to its statistical analysis when a probabilistic distribution is assumed for citation counts. The present contribution mainly aims to divulge the inferential techniques recently introduced by Pratelli et al. (2012), by explaining the details for proper point and set estimation of the theoretical h-index. Moreover, some new achievements on simultaneous inference – addressed to produce suitable scholar comparisons – are carried out. Finally, the analysis of the citation dataset for the Nobel Laureates (in the last five years) and for the Fields medallists (from 2002 onward) is considered in order to exemplify the theoretical issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Baccini, A. & Barabesi, L. & Marcheselli, M. & Pratelli, L., 2012. "Statistical inference on the h-index with an application to top-scientist performance," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 721-728.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:infome:v:6:y:2012:i:4:p:721-728
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2012.07.009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751157712000600
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.joi.2012.07.009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leo Egghe, 2006. "Theory and practise of the g-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 69(1), pages 131-152, October.
    2. Krisztina Barcza & András Telcs, 2009. "Paretian publication patterns imply Paretian Hirsch index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(2), pages 513-519, November.
    3. John Panaretos & Chrisovaladis Malesios, 2009. "Assessing scientific research performance and impact with single indices," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(3), pages 635-670, December.
    4. Jan Beirlant & John H. J. Einmahl, 2010. "Asymptotics for the Hirsch Index," Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, Danish Society for Theoretical Statistics;Finnish Statistical Society;Norwegian Statistical Association;Swedish Statistical Association, vol. 37(3), pages 355-364, September.
    5. Philip Ball, 2005. "Index aims for fair ranking of scientists," Nature, Nature, vol. 436(7053), pages 900-900, August.
    6. Zhu, Rong & Joe, Harry, 2009. "Modelling heavy-tailed count data using a generalised Poisson-inverse Gaussian family," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(15), pages 1695-1703, August.
    7. Leo Egghe & Ronald Rousseau, 2006. "An informetric model for the Hirsch-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 69(1), pages 121-129, October.
    8. Costas, Rodrigo & Bordons, María, 2007. "The h-index: Advantages, limitations and its relation with other bibliometric indicators at the micro level," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 193-203.
    9. Xiong, Shifeng, 2011. "An asymptotics look at the generalized inference," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 102(2), pages 336-348, February.
    10. Mandel, Micha & Betensky, Rebecca A., 2008. "Simultaneous confidence intervals based on the percentile bootstrap approach," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 52(4), pages 2158-2165, January.
    11. Fred Y. Ye, 2011. "A unification of three models for the h-index," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(1), pages 205-207, January.
    12. Alonso, S. & Cabrerizo, F.J. & Herrera-Viedma, E. & Herrera, F., 2009. "h-Index: A review focused in its variants, computation and standardization for different scientific fields," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 273-289.
    13. Mathias Drton, 2004. "Model selection for Gaussian concentration graphs," Biometrika, Biometrika Trust, vol. 91(3), pages 591-602, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marco Valente, 2015. "When the Brightest are not the Best," LEM Papers Series 2015/13, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    2. Chen, Kuan-Ming & Jen, Tsung-Hau & Wu, Margaret, 2014. "Estimating the accuracies of journal impact factor through bootstrap," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 181-196.
    3. Abramo, Giovanni & Cicero, Tindaro & D’Angelo, Ciriaco Andrea, 2014. "Are the authors of highly cited articles also the most productive ones?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 89-97.
    4. Cimenler, Oguz & Reeves, Kingsley A. & Skvoretz, John, 2014. "A regression analysis of researchers’ social network metrics on their citation performance in a college of engineering," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 667-682.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John Panaretos & Chrisovaladis Malesios, 2009. "Assessing scientific research performance and impact with single indices," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(3), pages 635-670, December.
    2. Bornmann, Lutz & Marx, Werner, 2012. "HistCite analysis of papers constituting the h index research front," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 285-288.
    3. Maziar Montazerian & Edgar Dutra Zanotto & Hellmut Eckert, 2019. "A new parameter for (normalized) evaluation of H-index: countries as a case study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(3), pages 1065-1078, March.
    4. Li Zhai & Xiangbin Yan & Bin Zhu, 2014. "The H l -index: improvement of H-index based on quality of citing papers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(2), pages 1021-1031, February.
    5. Yan, Xiangbin & Zhai, Li & Fan, Weiguo, 2013. "C-index: A weighted network node centrality measure for collaboration competence," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 223-239.
    6. Wei, Shelia X. & Tong, Tong & Rousseau, Ronald & Wang, Wanru & Ye, Fred Y., 2022. "Relations among the h-, g-, ψ-, and p-index and offset-ability," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4).
    7. van Eck, Nees Jan & Waltman, Ludo, 2008. "Generalizing the h- and g-indices," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 263-271.
    8. van Eck, N.J.P. & Waltman, L., 2008. "Generalizing the h- and g-indices," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2008-049-LIS, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    9. Lorna Wildgaard, 2015. "A comparison of 17 author-level bibliometric indicators for researchers in Astronomy, Environmental Science, Philosophy and Public Health in Web of Science and Google Scholar," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 104(3), pages 873-906, September.
    10. J. Martin Zyl, 2013. "The generalized Pareto distribution fitted to research outputs of countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(3), pages 1099-1109, March.
    11. Lorna Wildgaard & Jesper W. Schneider & Birger Larsen, 2014. "A review of the characteristics of 108 author-level bibliometric indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(1), pages 125-158, October.
    12. S. Alonso & F. J. Cabrerizo & E. Herrera-Viedma & F. Herrera, 2010. "hg-index: a new index to characterize the scientific output of researchers based on the h- and g-indices," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 82(2), pages 391-400, February.
    13. Franceschini, Fiorenzo & Maisano, Domenico, 2010. "The citation triad: An overview of a scientist's publication output based on Ferrers diagrams," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 503-511.
    14. Filippo Radicchi & Claudio Castellano, 2013. "Analysis of bibliometric indicators for individual scholars in a large data set," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 97(3), pages 627-637, December.
    15. Zhang, Lin & Thijs, Bart & Glänzel, Wolfgang, 2011. "The diffusion of H-related literature," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 583-593.
    16. Pablo Dorta-González & María-Isabel Dorta-González, 2011. "Central indexes to the citation distribution: a complement to the h-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 88(3), pages 729-745, September.
    17. Deming Lin & Tianhui Gong & Wenbin Liu & Martin Meyer, 2020. "An entropy-based measure for the evolution of h index research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(3), pages 2283-2298, December.
    18. Gaviria-Marin, Magaly & Merigó, José M. & Baier-Fuentes, Hugo, 2019. "Knowledge management: A global examination based on bibliometric analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 194-220.
    19. Lathabai, Hiran H., 2020. "ψ-index: A new overall productivity index for actors of science and technology," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4).
    20. Parul Khurana & Kiran Sharma, 2022. "Impact of h-index on author’s rankings: an improvement to the h-index for lower-ranked authors," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(8), pages 4483-4498, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:infome:v:6:y:2012:i:4:p:721-728. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/joi .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.