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Analysis of the ch-index: an indicator to evaluate the diffusion of scientific research output by citers

Author

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  • Fiorenzo Franceschini

    (Dipartimento di Sistemi di Produzione ed Economia dell’Azienda (DISPEA), Politecnico di Torino)

  • Domenico Maisano

    (Dipartimento di Sistemi di Produzione ed Economia dell’Azienda (DISPEA), Politecnico di Torino)

  • Anna Perotti

    (Biblioteca Centrale II Facoltà di Ingegneria, Politecnico di Torino)

  • Andrea Proto

    (Dipartimento di Sistemi di Produzione ed Economia dell’Azienda (DISPEA), Politecnico di Torino)

Abstract

This paper focuses the attention on the ch-index, a recent bibliometric indicator similar to the Hirsch (h) index, to evaluate the published research output of a scientist (Ajiferuke and Wolfram, Proceedings of the 12th international conference of the international society for scientometrics and informetrics. Rio de Janeiro, pp. 798–808, 2009). Ch-index is defined as the number such that, for a general group of scientific publications, ch publications are cited by at least ch different citers while the other publications are cited by no more than ch different citers. The basic difference from the classical h is that, according to ch, the diffusion of one author’s publication is evaluated on the basis of the number of different citing authors (or citers), rather than the number of received citations. The goal of this work is to discuss the pros and cons of ch and identify its connection with h. A large sample of scientists in the Quality Engineering/Management field are analyzed so as to investigate the novel indicator’s characteristics. Then, the analysis is preliminarily extended to other scientific disciplines. The most important result is that ch is almost insensitive to self-citations and/or citations made by recurrent citers, and it can be profitably used for complementing h.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:85:y:2010:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-010-0165-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-010-0165-0
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    2. Oleh Moroz & Olena Shtovba, 2017. "Accounting of Scientometric Indicators for Management of Scientific Activity," Oblik i finansi, Institute of Accounting and Finance, issue 1, pages 174-179, March.
    3. Cappelletti-Montano, Beniamino & Columbu, Silvia & Montaldo, Stefano & Musio, Monica, 2021. "New perspectives in bibliometric indicators: Moving from citations to citing authors," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3).
    4. João A G Moreira & Xiao Han T Zeng & Luís A Nunes Amaral, 2015. "The Distribution of the Asymptotic Number of Citations to Sets of Publications by a Researcher or from an Academic Department Are Consistent with a Discrete Lognormal Model," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(11), pages 1-17, November.
    5. Domenico A. Maisano & Luca Mastrogiacomo & Fiorenzo Franceschini, 2023. "Empirical evidence on the relationship between research and teaching in academia," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(8), pages 4475-4507, August.
    6. 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.
    7. Rousseau, Ronald & Liu, Yuxian & Ye, Fred Y., 2012. "A preliminary investigation on diffusion through a layered system," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 177-191.
    8. 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.
    9. Olga Popova & Dmitry Romanov & Alexander Drozdov & Alexander Gerashchenko, 2017. "Citation-based criteria of the significance of the research activity of scientific teams," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(3), pages 1179-1202, September.
    10. Fiorenzo Franceschini & Domenico Maisano, 2011. "Criticism on the hg-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 86(2), pages 339-346, February.
    11. Ajiferuke, Isola & Lu, Kun & Wolfram, Dietmar, 2011. "Who are the research disciples of an author? Examining publication recitation and oeuvre citation exhaustivity," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 292-302.
    12. Kun Lu & Isola Ajiferuke & Dietmar Wolfram, 2014. "Extending citer analysis to journal impact evaluation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 100(1), pages 245-260, July.
    13. Olga Popova & Dmitry Romanov & Marina Evseeva, 2017. "Modern Assessment Method of Research Outcome Methodological Significance," Journal of Asian Scientific Research, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 7(3), pages 63-70, March.
    14. L. Egghe, 2013. "A rationale for the relation between the citer h-index and the classical h-index of a researcher," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(3), pages 873-876, March.

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