H-index in medicine is driven by original research

Abstract

Aim To investigate the contribution of selected types of articles to h-indices of medical researchers.Methods We used the Web of Science to export the publication records of various members from 26 scientific medical societies (13 European, 13 North American) associated with 13 medical specialties. Those included were presidents (n = 26), heads of randomly chosen committees (n = 52), and randomly selected members of those committees (n = 52). Publications contributing to h-index were categorized as research articles, reviews, guidelines, metaanalyses, or other published work.Results Overall, 3259 items authored by 129 scholars were analyzed. The median h-index was 19.5. The median contribution of research articles to h-index was 84.4%. Researchers in the upper h-index tercile (≥28.5) had a larger share of research articles that contributed to h-index in comparison with those in the lower h-index tercile (≤12.5) (median 87.3% [1st-3rd quartile: 80.0%-93.1%] vs 80.0% [50.0%-88.9%], P = 0.015). We observed an analogous difference with regard to guidelines (1.1% [0%-3.7%] vs 0% [0%-0%], P = 0.007). ConclusionsOriginal research drives h-indices in medicine. Although guidelines contribute to h-indices in medicine, their influence is low. The specific role of randomized controlled trials in building h-index in medicine remains to be assessed.

Effect of Medical Student Contributions on Academic Productivity: Analysis of Student Authorship Over Time

“…23,24 As a parameter to quantify individuals' scientific output and scholarly impact in agiven year, it can be applied to any set of papers, journals, counties, and even within specific fields. [25][26][27][28][29][30] For our purposes, the H-index can also be used to assess the impact of student authorship on published research as a quantitative measure of author productivity.…”

Using the bootstrapping method to verify whether hospital physicians have different h-indexes regarding individual research achievement

“…Fourth, although our suggested SC was proposed for displaying the extent to which the entity had a monopoly within a group, many similar indicators have been used to compare the inequality of the data, such as the Herfindahl index (also known as Herfindahl–Hirschman Index, or sometimes Herfindahl–Hirschman Index-score) [ 2 ] and the Gini coefficient. [ 23 , 24 ]…”

“…[ 1 ] Its use has spread throughout the global scientific community. [ 2 ] The original paper [ 1 ] had been cited 552 times in Pubmed Central as of December 21, 2019. Over 328 and 98 articles were searched with the term “(bibliometric[MeSH Major Topic]) AND h-index”[All Fields] and only in title, respectively, in Pubmed Central.…”

The 100-most Cited Articles About Craniectomy and Hemicraniectomy: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…The H index has been included for each top author. Originally proposed by Hirsch, it is a research output measure that represents original research and other publications designed to indicate impact [2]. For example, an H index value of 22 means that 22 articles have been cited at least 22 times.…”