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The h-index: Advantages, limitations and its relation with other bibliometric indicators at the micro level

2007; Elsevier BV; Volume: 1; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.joi.2007.02.001

1875-5879

Rodrigo Costas, María Bordons,

Psychology Research and Bibliometrics

The relationship of the h-index with other bibliometric indicators at the micro level is analysed for Spanish CSIC scientists in Natural Resources, using publications downloaded from the Web of Science (1994–2004). Different activity and impact indicators were obtained to describe the research performance of scientists in different dimensions, being the h-index located through factor analysis in a quantitative dimension highly correlated with the absolute number of publications and citations. The need to include the remaining dimensions in the analysis of research performance of scientists and the risks of relying only on the h-index are stressed. The hypothesis that the achievement of some highly visible but intermediate-productive authors might be underestimated when compared with other scientists by means of the h-index is tested.