H-Index

The h-index is a means of attempting to measure the cumulative quality or impact of a scholarly article by comparing publications to citations, thus, the output of the researcher including prior published works too (Becker Guides: Tools for Authors: What Is the h-Index

?, 2021).Some of many potential issues with the h-index include, but not limited to:1) it assesses the scholarly output, but not intended on a time frame2) insensitive to rarely cited publications 3) citation context is omitted 4) depending on the data, the resources can vary affecting the index calculations.(BeckerGuides: Tools for Authors: What Is the h Index?, 2021)

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The impact factor measures the frequency compared to the average article within a journal cited within a specific year. Unlike the h-index, the impact factor measures viaranking the journal by calculating the number of times the article(s) are cited but not very good at measuring the impact like the h-index. Therefore, when misapplied, there can be a negative impact that will be hinder the quality of the journal (Subject and CourseGuides: Measuring Your Impact: Impact Factor, Citation Analysis, and Other Metrics:Journal Impact Factor (IF), 2021).

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Citations can be bias and influence the research by the fact that it is selective and is not based on a neutral perspective that can be heard when reading the works. It will tend to show favoritism by predominantly favoring a “positive” outcome over “negative” research resulting in an overrepresentation in areas of research (Journal of clinical epidemiology, 66(3), 296-301).

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Based on the articles by Fong and White, there are different types of citation manipulations so be careful! One manipulation is called the the coercive citation. The coercive citation is one example of citation manipulation that refers to the unethical behavior in an editor asks an author to allow them to piggyback on the authors journal by allowing the editor to include citations from their journal to the article. This would be done prior to accepting the article for publication while bringing little to no value by including the citation (Fong, 2017). Another citation manipulation is called padded citations. These manipulations occur when the editors and the scholars agree to boost their impact factor scores by working together and include them in their journals. The reward is not only being included, but the incentive they receive (Fong, 2017).

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Sources

BeckerGuides: Tools for Authors: What is the h index? (2021, August 2). Bernard

BeckerMedical Library. https://beckerguides.wustl.edu/authors/hindex

Fong, E. A. (2017, December 6). Authorship and citation manipulation in academic

research.PLOS One. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?

id=10.1371/journal.pone.0187394

Jannot, A. S., Agoritsas, T., Gayet-Ageron, A., & Perneger, T. V. (2013). Citation bias

favoringstatistically significant studies was present in medical research. Journal of

clinicalepidemiology, 66(3), 296-301.

over “negative” research resulting in an overrepresentation in areas of research (Journalof clinical epidemiology, 66(3), 296-301).