TY - JOUR
T1 - An entropy-based measure for the evolution of h index research
AU - Lin, Deming
AU - Gong, Tianhui
AU - Liu, Wenbin
AU - Meyer, Martin
N1 - Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China. The authors acknowledge with gratitude the comments and suggestions of anonymous reviewers and the editors, who provide significant contributions to this article.
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - The h index has been comprehensively developed and diffusely applied following its initial proposal in 2005 by Jorge Hirsch. However, while the numbers of papers and authors measured continue to grow, it is not known whether such increases in quantity mean that the research itself is advancing. Accordingly, the present study sets out to establish an analysis method, based on the concept of entropy, with which to elucidate the evolution of the h index. The results suggest that there are four stages, as follows: the emerging stage, the preliminary growth stage, the real growth stage, and the maturity stage. Meanwhile, the research of the h index is found to be in flux, and it is concluded that further development of the metric will require profound theoretical achievements as well as embedded innovation, or else the evolution of the h index will decline following a shortened maturity stage.
AB - The h index has been comprehensively developed and diffusely applied following its initial proposal in 2005 by Jorge Hirsch. However, while the numbers of papers and authors measured continue to grow, it is not known whether such increases in quantity mean that the research itself is advancing. Accordingly, the present study sets out to establish an analysis method, based on the concept of entropy, with which to elucidate the evolution of the h index. The results suggest that there are four stages, as follows: the emerging stage, the preliminary growth stage, the real growth stage, and the maturity stage. Meanwhile, the research of the h index is found to be in flux, and it is concluded that further development of the metric will require profound theoretical achievements as well as embedded innovation, or else the evolution of the h index will decline following a shortened maturity stage.
U2 - 10.1007/s11192-020-03712-1
DO - 10.1007/s11192-020-03712-1
M3 - Article
VL - 125
SP - 2283
EP - 2298
JO - Scientometrics
JF - Scientometrics
SN - 0138-9130
ER -