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The success-index: an alternative approach to the h-index for evaluating an individual’s research output

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Abstract

Among the most recent bibliometric indicators for normalizing the differences among fields of science in terms of citation behaviour, Kosmulski (J Informetr 5(3):481–485, 2011) proposed the NSP (number of successful paper) index. According to the authors, NSP deserves much attention for its great simplicity and immediate meaning—equivalent to those of the h-index—while it has the disadvantage of being prone to manipulation and not very efficient in terms of statistical significance. In the first part of the paper, we introduce the success-index, aimed at reducing the NSP-index’s limitations, although requiring more computing effort. Next, we present a detailed analysis of the success-index from the point of view of its operational properties and a comparison with the h-index’s ones. Particularly interesting is the examination of the success-index scale of measurement, which is much richer than the h-index’s. This makes success-index much more versatile for different types of analysis—e.g., (cross-field) comparisons of the scientific output of (1) individual researchers, (2) researchers with different seniority, (3) research institutions of different size, (4) scientific journals, etc.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Production Systems and Business Economics (DISPEA), Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy

    Fiorenzo Franceschini, Maurizio Galetto, Domenico Maisano & Luca Mastrogiacomo

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  1. Fiorenzo Franceschini
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  2. Maurizio Galetto
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  3. Domenico Maisano
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  4. Luca Mastrogiacomo
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Correspondence to Fiorenzo Franceschini.

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Franceschini, F., Galetto, M., Maisano, D. et al. The success-index: an alternative approach to the h-index for evaluating an individual’s research output. Scientometrics 92, 621–641 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-011-0570-z

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