The k-index is introduced to replace the h-index to evaluate better the scientific excellence of individuals

Heliyon
George Kaptay

Abstract

The best possible methods are needed to evaluate the scientific excellence of individuals and research groups in order to award positions and distribute research grants with higher efficiency. It is shown here that for the symmetrical distribution of citations of an individual the currently used h-index is approximately half of the square root of the total number of citations, according to the rule of Hirsch. It is also shown that deviations from this "ideal" h-index are common and they are due to deviations in the citation distributions of different individuals. However, those deviations are not characteristic for the scientific excellence of an individual and therefore they lead only to confusion in scientific evaluation. Therefore the h-index is suggested here to be replaced by the k-index. The k-index of an individual is calculated from his/her all independent citations as self-citations cannot be considered as an indication of the excellence of any paper or its authors (the citation is independent if there is no overlap in the lists of authors of the citing and the cited paper). The k-index takes into account only partial citations for each author of multi-authored papers. In ideal case the shares of the authors in a paper...Continue Reading

References

Nov 9, 2005·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·J E Hirsch
Nov 22, 2016·PloS One·Ulf Sandström, Peter van den Besselaar
Nov 21, 2017·Science Advances·Henry Sauermann, Carolin Haeussler

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Citations

Apr 19, 2021·Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology. Journal Canadien D'ophtalmologie·Stuti M TanyaSanjay Sharma

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