| Description |
HINDEX(AUTHORNAME) computes the h-index of the author AUTHORNAME, on the basis of the publications referenced by Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com). An active internet connection is required.
The index h is defined as "the number of papers with citation number higher or equal to h", and has been proposed by J.E. Hirsch to "characterize the scientific output of a researcher" [Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 46, 16569 (2005)]. Note that the number of citations referenced by Google Scholar may be lower than the actual one (old publications are not available online).
The string AUTHORNAME should contain the last name, or the initial(s) of the first name(s) followed by the last name, of the author (eg, 'A. Einstein'). Do not put the initial(s) after the last name. The scan is not case sensitive. Points (.) and spaces ( ) are not taken into account. See Google Scholar Help for more details about the syntax.
Example: HINDEX('A. Einstein') returns 43 (ie: 43 papers by A. Einstein have been cited at least 43 times, according to Google Scholar).
H = HINDEX(AUTHORNAME) only returns the h-index, without display.
HINDEX(AUTHORNAME, 'Property1',...) specifies the properties:
- 'verb': also displays the list of papers returned by Google Scholar, rejecting the ones for which AUTHORNAME is not one of the authors.
- 'plot': also plots the 'Cited by' number as a function of the paper rank.
HINDEX should be used with care. Many biases exist (homonyms, errors from Google Scholar, old papers are not available online, but unpublished or draft papers are...) For the true h-index of an author, it is recommended to use an official citation index database (eg, ISI). Use HINDEX just for fun.
Remark: Massive usage of hindex may be considered by the Google Scholar server as a spam attack, and may invalidate the IP number of your computer. If this happens, you get an 'Internet connection failed' error message -- but you still can use Google Scholar from a web browser. |
