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. |