h-index

The h-index is a simple metric used to measure the impact of your work and other researchers' work by evaluating the number of highly impactful publications a researcher has published. A higher number of cited publications leads to a higher h-index.

You can find your h-index on the top, right-hand side of your ResearchGate profile and on your Stats tab, under Citations. It is currently only visible when accessing ResearchGate from your browser and is not displayed on the iOS app.

How the h-index is calculated

Your h-index is calculated using two key pieces of information: the total number of papers you've published (Np) and the number of citations (Nc) each of those papers has received. It's defined by how many 'h' of your publications (Np) have at least 'h' citations each. For example, if you have one publication with at least one citation, your h-index is 1. If you have two publications with at least two citations each, your h-index would be 2, and so on.

On ResearchGate, you'll see two distinct h-indices for each author:

• h-index (including self-citations): This metric includes citations where you have cited your own work.

• h-index (excluding self-citations): This metric removes self-citations, offering a clearer picture for others to gauge how much attention your work is receiving from other researchers.

Please keep in mind that your h-index only considers citations from scientific literature, reflecting your impact within the scientific community. Furthermore, it's calculated based on the publications listed on your ResearchGate profile. To ensure your h-index accurately represents your full impact, we encourage you to add all of your work to your profile.

How to improve your h-index

To achieve the highest possible h-index for your research, the most important step is to make sure all of your work is added to your ResearchGate profile. It's especially crucial to include all your cited publications to boost your h-index. However, adding other work that hasn't yet been cited or has been cited infrequently is also a fantastic way to increase its visibility and potentially lead to more citations. For more detailed information on citations, please visit our Citations page.

Why your h-index might decrease

In some cases, your h-index might decrease, but it's often due to a few common reasons related to data accuracy and publication status. Here are a couple of reasons that might cause a fluctuation:

• Duplicate publications: If a publication that cited your work was duplicated in our system, and we subsequently merged these duplicates, the associated citation might be lost, leading to a decrease in your h-index.

• Removed publications: It's possible that an author of a publication that cited you has removed their work from our database entirely. When this happens, the citation is no longer counted.

While we can't investigate every individual h-index fluctuation due to the immense volume of data, we are constantly working to ensure the accuracy of our information and appreciate your patience.