Skip to main content

Table 2 Caveats with the use of h-index outlined by Hirsch [2, 9]

From: The Hirsch index - a play on numbers or a true appraisal of academic output?

#

Caveats

1.

A single number such as the h-index only tells a part of the story and never the whole story.

2.

Researchers in non-stream fields will not achieve very high h-indices.

3.

Skewness in the distribution of citations possible; affects the representativeness of the h-index.

4.

A scientist with a few but very highly cited papers will still have a low h-index.

5.

Increased collaborations likely to inflate the h-value.

6.

Self-citations can increase the h-index. This effect is more pronounced at lower h-indices.

7.

Senior authors and seasoned researchers likely to have a higher h-index when compared to their junior colleagues.