Measuring Scholarly Research Impact: A Tale of Two Georges

  George is a researcher studying several genes associated with an increased incidence of melanoma.  He has been working in the field for 4 years post graduate school and he is co-author on 14 publications.  Here are his publications with the # of citations and 2011 Impact Factor:

1. NEJM (2012) - 11 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 53.298]

2. Molecular Therapy (2011) - 13 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 6.873]

3. Molecular Therapy (2011) - 18 citations 

      [2011 Impact Factor = 6.873]

4. Human Gene Therapy (2011) - 21 citations 

      [2011 Impact Factor = 4.218]

5. Cancer Gene Therapy (2010) - 31 citations 

      [2011 Impact Factor = 2.802]

6. Human Gene Therapy (2010) - 25 citations 

      [2011 Impact Factor = 4.218]

7. Gene Therapy (2010) - 8 citations 

      [2011 Impact Factor = 3.710]

8. Cancer Gene Therapy (2009) - 7 citations 

      [2011 Impact Factor = 2.802]

9. Current Opinion in Molecular Therapeutics (2009) - 12 citations 

      [2011 Impact Factor = 3.676]

10. Cancer Gene Therapy (2009) - 28 citations 

      [2011 Impact Factor = 2.802]

11. Gene Therapy and Molecular Biology (2008) - 14 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 0.724]  

12. Disease Markers (2008) - 2 citations 

      [2011 Impact Factor = 1.642]

13. Medical Hypotheses (2007) - 8 citations 

      [2011 Impact Factor = 1.150]

14. Medical Hypotheses (2006) - 8 citations 

      [2011 Impact Factor = 1.150]

   George is looking for a new job and he would like to quantify his research impact in the most flattering way possible.

 Let's look at some of the ways we can quantify his output:

H-Index: 9

G-Index: 14

cH-Index (4/y+1): 9

Average Citations per Article: 14.7

Conclusions

1. G-Index is the best measure for George as it best highlights the fact that a significant percentage of his publications had an impact.
2. Average citations per article also highlights significant impact for a relatively small sample of publications.
3. The impact factors of the journals in which he published have increased over time - another point he may want to highlight.

2011 Impact Factors from: ISI Web of Knowledge. (2013). Journal Citation Reports. Retrieved from http://admin-apps.webofknowledge.com/JCR/JCR?SID=3FEKOKK525bCjN%40oKe9

Photo Credit:  George Washington [Online image]. (N.D.).Retrieved April 15, 2013 from http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/prespoetry/gw.html

   George is a researcher studying B-cell antigen presentation in nematode infections.  He has been working in the field for 4 years post graduate school and he is co-author on 14 publications.  Here are his publications with the # of citations and 2011 Impact Factor.

1. BMC Immunology (2012) - 4 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 2.531]

2. Immunologic Research (2012) - 9 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 3.026]

3. Parasite Immunology (2011) - 15 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 2.601]

4. Parasite Immunology (2011) - 11 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 2.601]

5. Parasite Immunology (2010) - 12 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 2.601]

6. Human Immunology (2010) - 15 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 2.837]

7. Journal of Immunology (2010) - 10 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 5.788]

8. Parasite Immunology (2009) - 11 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 2.601]

9. Inflammation Research (2009) - 12 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 2.109]

10. Inflammation Research (2009) - 11 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 2.109]

11. Journal of Immunological Methods (2008) - 4 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 2.203]  

12. Parasite Immunology (2008) - 9 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 2.601]

13. Microbiology and Immunology (2007) - 12 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 1.304]

14. Microbiology and Immunology (2006) - 18 citations

      [2011 Impact Factor = 1.304]

 George is looking for a new job and he would like to quantify his research impact in the most flattering way possible.  

Let's look at some of the ways we can quantify his output:

H-Index: 10

G-Index: 11

cH-Index (4/y+1): 9

Average Citations per Article: 10.9

Conclusions

1. H-Index is a good measure for George as he has had a large number of articles that have a similar number of citations without having many that have a lot of citations.
2. cH-Index isn't so good as some of his heavier cited articles are his older ones and so they are losing 'impact' by this calculation.
3. The impact factors of the journals he is cited in are towards the lower end for Immunology journals, so this isn't a major 'selling point' for George either.

2011 Impact Factors from: ISI Web of Knowledge. (2013). Journal Citation Reports. Retrieved from http://admin-apps.webofknowledge.com/JCR/JCR?SID=3FEKOKK525bCjN%40oKe9

Photo Credit:  George III, King of England [Online image]. (N.D.).Retrieved October 30,, 2015 from http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/1775.html