IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v82y2010i2d10.1007_s11192-009-0048-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ranking university departments using the mean h-index

Author

Listed:
  • Themis Lazaridis

    (City College of New York/CUNY)

Abstract

Ranking of universities has lately received considerable attention. However, ranking of departments would give a higher resolution picture of the distribution of quality within each university. In this work the Hirsch (h) index of each faculty in Greek Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, and Physics departments was calculated using the Web of Science and the mean value was used to rank them. This ranking refers to the research performance of each department and thus is most relevant to its doctoral program. The results seem highly meaningful. If performed on a pan-European basis, such rankings could spur healthy competition and could provide a strong motive for meritocratic hiring practices. Technical difficulties and possible extension of this approach to social science and humanities departments are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Themis Lazaridis, 2010. "Ranking university departments using the mean h-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 82(2), pages 211-216, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:82:y:2010:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-009-0048-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-009-0048-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-009-0048-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-009-0048-4?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. Charles Oppenheim, 2007. "Using the h‐index to rank influential British researchers in information science and librarianship," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 58(2), pages 297-301, January.
    3. Gad Saad, 2006. "Exploring the h-index at the author and journal levels using bibliometric data of productive consumer scholars and business-related journals respectively," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 69(1), pages 117-120, October.
    4. Antonis Sidiropoulos & Dimitrios Katsaros & Yannis Manolopoulos, 2007. "Generalized Hirsch h-index for disclosing latent facts in citation networks," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 72(2), pages 253-280, August.
    5. Juan Imperial & Alonso Rodríguez-Navarro, 2007. "Usefulness of Hirsch’s h-index to evaluate scientific research in Spain," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 71(2), pages 271-282, May.
    6. Gualberto Buela-Casal & Olga Gutiérrez-Martínez & María Paz Bermúdez-Sánchez & Oscar Vadillo-Muñoz, 2007. "Comparative study of international academic rankings of universities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 71(3), pages 349-365, June.
    7. Anthony F. J. Raan, 2006. "Comparison of the Hirsch-index with standard bibliometric indicators and with peer judgment for 147 chemistry research groups," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 67(3), pages 491-502, June.
    8. Tibor Braun & Wolfgang Glänzel & András Schubert, 2006. "A Hirsch-type index for journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 69(1), pages 169-173, October.
    9. Michael G. Banks, 2006. "An extension of the Hirsch index: Indexing scientific topics and compounds," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 69(1), pages 161-168, October.
    10. Anthony F. J. van Raan, 2005. "Fatal attraction: Conceptual and methodological problems in the ranking of universities by bibliometric methods," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 62(1), pages 133-143, January.
    11. Lutz Bornmann & Hans‐Dieter Daniel, 2007. "What do we know about the h index?," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 58(9), pages 1381-1385, July.
    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. Xin An & Xin Sun & Shuo Xu, 2022. "Important citations identification with semi-supervised classification model," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(11), pages 6533-6555, November.
    2. Muzammil Tahira & Rose Alinda Alias & Aryati Bakri, 2013. "Scientometric assessment of engineering in Malaysians universities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 96(3), pages 865-879, September.
    3. Masaru Kuno & Mary Prorok & Shubin Zhang & Huy Huynh & Thurston Miller, 2022. "Deciphering the US News and World Report Ranking of US Chemistry Graduate Programs," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(5), pages 2131-2150, May.
    4. Maxim Kotsemir & Sergey Shashnov, 2017. "Measuring, analysis and visualization of research capacity of university at the level of departments and staff members," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(3), pages 1659-1689, September.
    5. Giovanni Abramo & Ciriaco Andrea D’Angelo & Fulvio Viel, 2013. "The suitability of h and g indexes for measuring the research performance of institutions," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 97(3), pages 555-570, December.
    6. Stelios Katranidis & Theodore Panagiotidis & Costas Zontanos, 2014. "An Evaluation Of The Greek Universities’ Economics Departments," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 173-182, April.
    7. Cao, Huiying & Gao, Chao & Wang, Zhen, 2023. "Ranking academic institutions by means of institution–publication networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 629(C).
    8. Kuan, Chung-Huei & Huang, Mu-Hsuan & Chen, Dar-Zen, 2013. "Cross-field evaluation of publications of research institutes using their contributions to the fields’ MVPs determined by h-index," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 455-468.
    9. Ghassan Abdul-Majeed & Wissam Mahmood & Nasri S. M. Namer, 2021. "Measuring research performance of Iraqi universities using Scopus data," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(3), pages 2349-2363, March.
    10. Hiran H. Lathabai & Abhirup Nandy & Vivek Kumar Singh, 2021. "x-index: Identifying core competency and thematic research strengths of institutions using an NLP and network based ranking framework," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(12), pages 9557-9583, December.
    11. Sziklai, Balázs R., 2021. "Ranking institutions within a discipline: The steep mountain of academic excellence," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2).
    12. Petr Praus, 2019. "High-ranked citations percentage as an indicator of publications quality," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(1), pages 319-329, July.
    13. Franceschini, Fiorenzo & Maisano, Domenico, 2011. "Structured evaluation of the scientific output of academic research groups by recent h-based indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 64-74.
    14. Aniruddha Maiti & Sai Shi & Slobodan Vucetic, 2023. "An ablation study on the use of publication venue quality to rank computer science departments," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(8), pages 4197-4218, August.
    15. Marco Geraci & M. Degli Esposti, 2011. "Where do Italian universities stand? An in-depth statistical analysis of national and international rankings," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 87(3), pages 667-681, June.
    16. Aparna Basu & Sumit Kumar Banshal & Khushboo Singhal & Vivek Kumar Singh, 2016. "Designing a Composite Index for research performance evaluation at the national or regional level: ranking Central Universities in India," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(3), pages 1171-1193, June.
    17. Shahryar Rahnamayan & Sedigheh Mahdavi & Kalyanmoy Deb & Azam Asilian Bidgoli, 2020. "Ranking Multi-Metric Scientific Achievements Using a Concept of Pareto Optimality," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-46, June.
    18. Chao Lu & Ying Ding & Chengzhi Zhang, 2017. "Understanding the impact change of a highly cited article: a content-based citation analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(2), pages 927-945, August.
    19. Nikolaos A. Kazakis, 2014. "Bibliometric evaluation of the research performance of the Greek civil engineering departments in National and European context," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(1), pages 505-525, October.
    20. Nikolaos A. Kazakis & Anastasios D. Diamantidis & Leonidas L. Fragidis & Miltos K. Lazarides, 2014. "Evaluating the research performance of the Greek medical schools using bibliometrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(2), pages 1367-1384, February.
    21. Nikolaos A. Kazakis, 2015. "The research activity of the current faculty of the Greek chemical engineering departments: a bibliometric study in national and international context," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 103(1), pages 229-250, April.
    22. Fiorenzo Franceschini & Domenico Maisano, 2012. "Publication and patent analysis of European researchers in the field of production technology and manufacturing systems," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 93(1), pages 89-100, October.
    23. Dimitris Kremmydas & Kyriakos Drivas, 2015. "Assembling the research profile of Greek Economic Departments," Working Papers 2015-4, Agricultural University of Athens, Department Of Agricultural Economics.
    24. Angel Meseguer-Martinez & Alejandro Ros-Galvez & Alfonso Rosa-Garcia & Jose Antonio Catalan-Alarcon, 2019. "Online video impact of world class universities," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 29(3), pages 519-532, September.

    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. Fiorenzo Franceschini & Domenico Maisano, 2011. "Bibliometric positioning of scientific manufacturing journals: a comparative analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 86(2), pages 463-485, February.
    2. Fiorenzo Franceschini & Domenico Maisano & Anna Perotti & Andrea Proto, 2010. "Analysis of the ch-index: an indicator to evaluate the diffusion of scientific research output by citers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 85(1), pages 203-217, October.
    3. Zhang, Lin & Thijs, Bart & Glänzel, Wolfgang, 2011. "The diffusion of H-related literature," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 583-593.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Franceschini, Fiorenzo & Maisano, Domenico, 2010. "The Hirsch spectrum: A novel tool for analyzing scientific journals," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 64-73.
    7. Christopher McCarty & James W. Jawitz & Allison Hopkins & Alex Goldman, 2013. "Predicting author h-index using characteristics of the co-author network," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 96(2), pages 467-483, August.
    8. Franceschini, Fiorenzo & Maisano, Domenico A., 2010. "Analysis of the Hirsch index's operational properties," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 203(2), pages 494-504, June.
    9. Miguel A. García-Pérez, 2009. "A multidimensional extension to Hirsch’s h-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(3), pages 779-785, December.
    10. Marek Gągolewski & Przemysław Grzegorzewski, 2009. "A geometric approach to the construction of scientific impact indices," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(3), pages 617-634, December.
    11. Antonis Sidiropoulos & Dimitrios Katsaros & Yannis Manolopoulos, 2007. "Generalized Hirsch h-index for disclosing latent facts in citation networks," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 72(2), pages 253-280, August.
    12. J. W. Fedderke, 2013. "The objectivity of national research foundation peer review in South Africa assessed against bibliometric indexes," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 97(2), pages 177-206, November.
    13. Rodrigo Costas & María Bordons, 2008. "Is g-index better than h-index? An exploratory study at the individual level," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 77(2), pages 267-288, November.
    14. Vieira, E.S. & Gomes, J.A.N.F., 2010. "A research impact indicator for institutions," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 581-590.
    15. Rosenstreich, Daniela & Wooliscroft, Ben, 2009. "Measuring the impact of accounting journals using Google Scholar and the g-index," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 227-239.
    16. Judit Bar-Ilan, 2008. "The h-index of h-index and of other informetric topics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 75(3), pages 591-605, June.
    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. Woeginger, Gerhard J., 2008. "An axiomatic analysis of Egghe’s g-index," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 364-368.
    19. Mingkun Wei, 2020. "Research on impact evaluation of open access journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(2), pages 1027-1049, February.
    20. 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.

    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:spr:scient:v:82:y:2010:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-009-0048-4. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.