How to Evaluate The Quality of An International Researcher: H index, Citations & Number of Papers

How to Evaluate The Quality of An International Researcher: H index, Citations & Number of Papers

Prof. Hendry Izaac Elim

Indonesia physicist

Pattimura university

Talking about a scholar is always in a deep relationship with the quality of knowledge and understanding as well as wisdom in a particular field.

The evaluation of a researcher is very difficult to be judged and reviewed by common people.

The problem of such complicated quality is mainly due to the complex variables that are directly associated with the level of a scholar.

There were many efforts to study the solution of the quality mystery. One of the best outcome was from the invention of H index by Prof. Hirsch, a world theoretical physicist who published the researcher significant parameter from the deep search of Web of Science (WOS) database in 2005 and 2007. The results were published in a reputable journal called as Proceeding National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 

According to the research, H index which is calculated based on the citations of papers and the number of cited papers. The data was then implemented to Nobel laureates papers data base extracted from WOS. He obtained that the average H index of Nobel winner was ~30.  It means that the author must have at least 30 published papers and each of the paper must have at least 30 citations. 

Since the discovery of the H index parameter, both WOS and SCOPUS as high quality scientific database companies have employed the use of the variable to evaluate the quality of a researcher. 

The question was that:  is H index the only significant parameter to judge the quality of a scholar?

The answer is not always. Why?

As a simple physicist in a small island inside Archipelago country of Indonesia, my opinion is as follows:

[1]. The content of a paper is the most important value, NOT the number of papers.

[2]. The quality of review process in a journal is a must to accept a high quality research outcome.

[3]. The ongoing consistency of research products must have an excellent roadmap.

According to the above-mentioned 3 critical thoughts in researcher's published papers, one could provide the following remark as physical parameters to measure the quality of a researcher:

[1]. H index value calculated from reputable WOS/ Scopus

[2]. The number of total citations of published papers must be over 3000 citations for the grade of an international scientist.

[3]. The total number of the whole types of publications must be considered into account for the final evaluation, for example from Google Scholar/ Publish or Perish.

Figure 1 shows a simple evaluation of Prof. Elim as the first pure physics professor in the eastern part of Indonesia taken from the whole published data recorded in WOS, Scopus, Google Scholar, Publish or Perish and SINTA, respectively.

In summary from the general picture, one can identify that Prof.  Elim has attained an international scientist level indicated by the over 3000 citations in Scopus. Moreover, Prof. Elim has achieved an incredible H index value of 28 in WOS that the large number shows the quality of Scopus data fitted with WOS data. In addition, the total 162 whole publications in Google Scholar/ Publish or Perish explains his consistency as an international scholar in the last 20 years scientific career.

Finally, we do hope that this simple thinking can trigger the readers to advance their research career  by always evaluating their outcome regularly according to their advancement in science, technology and innovation for the better future scientific generation. 

Cheers,

Hendry