Categorizing Hirsch Index Variants

TL;DR

This paper explores whether the g-index reflects both productivity and impact in citation analysis, using factor analysis on physicists' citation data with data transformations.

Contribution

It introduces a factor analysis approach to compare Hirsch index variants and examines the g-index's informational content beyond size.

Findings

The g-index may include impact information in addition to productivity.

Logarithmic and square-root transformations influence factor analysis results.

Empirical analysis on physicists' citation data demonstrates the approach.

Abstract

Utilizing the Hirsch index h and some of its variants for an exploratory factor analysis we discuss whether one of the most important Hirsch-type indices, namely the g-index comprises information about not only the size of the productive core but also the impact of the papers in the core. We also study the effect of logarithmic and square-root transformation of the data utilized in the factor analysis. To demonstrate our approach we use a real data example analysing the citation records of 26 physicists compiled from the Web of Science.