An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output

TL;DR

The index hbar, defined as the number of papers of an individual that have citation count larger than or equal to the citation count of all coauthors of each paper, is proposed as a useful index to characterize the scientific output of a researcher that takes into account the effect of multiple authorship.

Abstract

I propose the index $h$, defined as the number of papers with citation number higher or equal to $h$, as a useful index to characterize the scientific output of a researcher.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: The intersection of the 45 degree line with the curve giving the number of citations versus the paper number gives h. The total number of citations is the area under the curve. Assuming the second derivative is non-negative everywhere, the minimum area is given by the distribution indicated by the dotted line, yielding a=2 in Eq. 1.
• Figure 2: Histogram giving number of Nobel-prize recipients in Physics in the last 20 years versus their h-index. The peak is at h-index between 35 and 39.