g-index

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The g-index is an index for quantifying the scientific productivity of physicists and other scientists based on their publication record. It was suggested in 2006 by Leo Egghe.

The index is calculated based on the distribution of citations received by a given researcher's publications.

Given a set of articles ranked in decreasing order of the number of citations that they received, the g-index is the (unique) largest number such that the top g articles received (together) at least g² citations.

An alternative definition is

Given a set of articles ranked in decreasing order of the number of citations that they received, the g-index is the (unique) largest number such that the top g articles received on average at least g citations.

This index is very similar to the h-index, and attempts to address its shortcomings. Like the h-index, the g-index is a natural number and thus lacks in discriminatory power. Therefore, Richard Tol proposed a rational generalisation.

Tol also proposed a successive g-index.

Given a set of researchers ranked in decreasing order of their g-index, the g₁-index is the (unique) largest number such that the top g₁ researchers have on average at least a g-index of g₁.

[edit] See also

• h-index
• h-b index

[edit] References

• Egghe, L. (2006) Theory and practice of the g-index, Scientometrics, vol. 69, No 1, pp. 131-152. DOI link
• Tol, R.S.J. (2008) A rational, successive g-index applied to economics departments in Ireland, Journal of Informetrics, vol. 2, pp. 149-155. preprint