The Scopus h-index, whats it all about?

Part I
Submitted by Elizabeth Dyas
Many of the questions we receive are related to the h-index. Today we bring you a guest post by Meshna Koren, Second Line Support Manager
for Scopus (also known as "she who knows all about Scopus").

The h-index is an index that attempts to measure both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist or scholar. In Scopus,
the h-index is not a static value; it is calculated live on a set of results each time you look it up. The calculation was suggested by Hirsch and it can
be summed up as:
A scientist has an index h if h of his/her Np papers has at least h citations each, and the other (Np h) papers have no more than h citations
each.
In Scopus you can calculate it on any set of results; it does not have to be papers belonging to just one author. Just run a random search: TITLEABS-KEY(mars water ice), select all results, click View Citation Overview and therein you will see the h-index value for that set (see image).
This means that 84 documents from this set have been cited at least 84 times, but the 85th document has been cited less than 85 times.
Tomorrow we may load new articles (Scopus loads new content daily!) which cite any one article in this set, and the h-index may rise because of
that.
What you do need to know about Scopus is that we do not have references for records of articles that have been published prior to 1996 (though
this will be changing in the relatively near future, read more on the Scopus Cited References Expansionproject!).
The references are needed to calculate citations; if my article A cites your article B, but Scopus doesn't have references of my article A, well, your
B won't show as being cited. There's no danger if you published in 1996 or later because you couldn't have been cited before that time, but if you
published in 1982 we may be showing a lower citation count for that article. And if you look at the above screenshot again, we do warn you
there: "Scopus does not have complete citation information for articles published before 1996."

The Scopus h-index, what's it all about? Part II

Submitted by Elizabeth Dyas
on Fri, 05/09/2014 - 14:23
Yesterday we brought you the first of two posts on the h-index. Since many of the questions the Scopus team receives from users are related to
the h-index and how it is calculated, we thought it was a worthy topic for two posts. Today's post, Part II, is focused on a specific author and
his/her h-index. Thanks again to our guest author Meshna Koren, Second Line Support Manager for Scopus (also known as "she who knows all
about Scopus").

Obviously, nobody cares about an h-index for articles about water and ice on Mars; people want to be able to evaluate another author's work! So
they'd run a search more like this instead: AU-ID(26643014200) or AU-ID("Baker, Victor R." 26643014200) which would return all articles that
were written by Mr. Baker. We get the results, we calculate Citation Overview and we look at the great h-index of 40.

This is a high value for one author. It means the author participated (we do not distinguish in the order of author names when calculating
citations, all authors are equal in this regard) in the authoring of 40 articles of which each has been cited at least 40 times. Think about that for a
momentthat's some impact!
Still, this value may still be unfair. Because for all these articles: AU-ID("Baker, Victor R." 26643014200) AND PUBYEAR BEF 1996 we may be
displaying a low citation count thats too low (though this will be changing, read more on the Scopus Cited References Expansion project).
To even things out, we display an h-index value on author profile page that only uses documents published in 1996 or later. And when visiting
this page, a user may be shocked to find that the value is only 26.That's a big difference, it must surely be wrong!

But it isn't; if you read what the value represents, we state that "The h-index considers Scopus articles published after 1995." and that is not
quite the same thing as "not having complete citation information for pre-1996 content". And if you follow the link to Citation Overview, you will
see the same 5,120 total citations given to Baker's papers, but the h-index here also says: "The h-index considers Scopus articles published after
1995."
But why... which one is now correct? They both are! It really depends on what you want to evaluate.
It can be confusing when an author first sees the high and then the low value; and it looks to them like something broke or citations got lost (or
we are just being mean). Sometimes we receive feedback that we should simplify things and decide on one method and discard the rest.
But it's all a matter of choice. Author pages show the h-index for content published in 1996 or later because we are confident that we can
present a comprehensive, fair and relevant overview. At the time Scopus was launched it was shown that most people are actually interested in
the research and impact over the last 10 years. Not that the previous stuff doesn't matter, it does, just not as often.

5 facts about Scopus and the h-index

Submitted by Susannah Beatty...
on Fri, 05/15/2015 - 23:00
How the h-index in Scopus is calculated and where to find it are popular topics; in fact, a post about the h-index from just over a year ago
continues to be among our top viewed and shared content. However, a lot has happened in Scopus since last year, making it a good time to revisit the h-index. Here are 5 facts about Scopus and the h-index:
1. The h-index is no longer limited to post-1995 data, a result of our Cited Reference Expansion Program.
2. The h-index includes citations from expanded book coverage (but can be easily excluded from your calculation if desired).
3. You can calculate the h-index for a single author, multiple authors or even for selected documents.
4. You can access an h-index from the author details, the analyze author output and the citation overview pages.
5. Author self-citations can be excluded from calculating an h-index.
Check your h-index in Scopus. The accuracy of your h-index also depends on the accuracy of your author profile. Use theScopus Feedback
Wizard to make sure your profile is up-to-date. You can also manage your author profile using the Scopus integration with ORCID. Watch this
video to learn how.