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Faculty Scholarly Publishing

Faculty are invited to use this guide for information regarding scholarly publishing, open access, bibliometrics, and APC information. E. H. Butler Library Subscribes to many resources that can assist faculty with scholarship endeavors.

Researcher Metrics & Article Impact

Web of Science Citation Index & H-Index

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Web of Science

E. H. Butler Library Subscribes to the Web of Science Citation Index Core Collection. This subscription allows researchers to track their research citations and create a researcher account. Additionally, Web of Science provides researchers with their H-Index, a potential measurement of a researcher's scholarly impact.  

Web of Science is also a database that will list citations of specific articles in their index. Look foe researchers that are citing your scholarship and find your H-Index number. For accuracy purposes, it is recommended to claim your researcher account. 

Definition of H-Index or Hirsch Index: 

the impact of a particular scientist rather than a journal. "It is defined as the highest number of publications of a scientist that received h or more citations each while the other publications have not more than h citations each." For example, a scholar with an h-index of 5 had published 5 papers, each of which has been cited by others at least 5 times.

Graph of H-Index Calculation

Researcher Impact - Citation Metrics Workshop - Research Guides at  University of British Columbia

Finding Your H-Index in Web of Science 
  1. Visit Butler Library website and select Find
  2. Select Databases A to Z 
  3. Click on Web of Science 
  4. Select Researchers and search for your name (example: Gordon Pennycook) Image of Web of Science researchers search with the name Gordon Pennycook entered into the appropriate fields
  5. Select the verified (Green Checkmark) account - In order to verify your researcher account, you must first Claim the Account. Screenshot of web of science after searching for Gordon Pennycook and showing the verified account
  6. The H-Index number is located with other bibliometric numbers on the right-hand side of the screen

Screenshot of an author's Web of Science record with the H-Index located on the right side of the screen.

Google Scholar Author Profile & H-Index

Google Scholar has author profiles that can be created and connected to publications indexed in Google Scholar. You will need a Gmail account to create your profile: 

How to create a Google Scholar Author Profile: 
  • Create or login to Gmail account 
  • Go to Google Scholar 
  • Click My Profile and Create Profile 
  • Connect indexed articles to your created account 

*Educational or Institutional email address will need to be verified 

Finding google Scholar Author Profiles & H-Index 

screenshot of a Google Scholar search for the research Gordon Pennycook

To search for a researcher in Google Scholar, simply type in the name of a researcher. 

If the name is not appearing, search for an article that is published by the research and click on the authors name. 

Google Scholar Researcher Profile: 

Below is an example of the H-Index/researcher profile in Google Scholar for the research Gordon Pennycook

Screenshot of google scholar researcher profile for Gordon Pennycook. the right panel of the screen has h-index information

 

About the Google Scholar H-Index
  • H-Index is a number which represents a combination of a number of publications and the number of citations of those publications
  • H-Index is subject specific and should not be compared across different disciplines
  • H-Index increases with time and so early career researchers are disadvantaged
  • Not all authors will have a h-index calculated for them by Web of Science and Google Scholar
    • Web of Science: publications need to be indexed by Web of Science (Web of Science applies rules to selecting publications to index) for a h-index of an author to be available (if publications are not indexed, a request for indexing may be submitted)
    • Google Scholar: a profile must be created by an author before H-Index can be provided by Google Scholar. Google Scholar has a far greater index, meaning it is larger but less selective (includes book chapters and smaller publishers) 
  • It is possible for an author to only have a h-index in one, Scopus or Google Scholar, and not the other
  • Google Scholar H-Index will generally be higher than Scopus h-index

Readings on Researcher Bibliometrics

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