A Case Study of the Modified Hirsch Index hm Accounting for Multiple Co-authors

TL;DR

This paper examines a modified Hirsch index that accounts for multiple co-authors by fractional counting, analyzing 26 physicists to compare its correlation and dataset ordering with the original index.

Contribution

It introduces and empirically evaluates a fractional co-authorship adjustment to the Hirsch index, highlighting differences in dataset ordering.

Findings

Strong correlation between original and modified indices

Dataset arrangements differ significantly based on index used

Modified index provides a different perspective on individual research impact

Abstract

J. E. Hirsch (2005) introduced the h-index to quantify an individual's scientific research output by the largest number h of a scientist's papers, that received at least h citations. This so-called Hirsch index can be easily modified to take multiple co-authorship into account by counting the papers fractionally according to (the inverse of) the number of authors. I have worked out 26 empirical cases of physicists to illustrate the effect of this modification. Although the correlation between the original and the modified Hirsch index is relatively strong, the arrangement of the datasets is significantly different depending on whether they are put into order according to the values of either the original or the modified index.