Standardizing the Evaluation of Scientific and Academic Performance in Neurosurgery—Critical Review of the “h” Index and its Variants

Aoun, Salah G.; Bendok, Bernard R.; Rahme, Rudy J.; Dacey, Ralph G.; Batjer, Henry H

doi:10.1016/j.wneu.2012.01.052

Cited by 82 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…42 The use of citation metrics in neurosurgery is still in its infancy. 2 It began in 2009 when Lee et al demonstrated a positive correlation between academic rank and a small group of neurosurgeons from 30 programs. 33 Two 45 used Google Scholar to calculate the h-index for 1120 academic neurosurgeons in the US.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

An analysis of publication productivity for 1225 academic neurosurgeons and 99 departments in the United States

Khan¹,

Thompson

Taylor

et al. 2014

JNS

108

120

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Object Bibliometrics is defined as the study of statistical and mathematical methods used to quantitatively analyze scientific literature. The application of bibliometrics in neurosurgery is in its infancy. The authors calculate a number of publication productivity measures for almost all academic neurosurgeons and departments within the US. Methods The h-index, g-index, m-quotient, and contemporary h-index (hc-index) were calculated for 1225 academic neurosurgeons in 99 (of 101) programs listed by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in January 2013. Three currently available citation databases were used: Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science. Bibliometric profiles were created for each surgeon. Comparisons based on academic rank (that is, chairperson, professor, associate, assistant, and instructor), sex, and subspecialties were performed. Departments were ranked based on the summation of individual faculty h-indices. Calculations were carried out from January to February 2013. Results The median h-index, g-index, hc-index, and m-quotient were 11, 20, 8, and 0.62, respectively. All indices demonstrated a positive relationship with increasing academic rank (p < 0.001). The median h-index was 11 for males (n = 1144) and 8 for females (n = 81). The h-index, g-index and hc-index significantly varied by sex (p < 0.001). However, when corrected for academic rank, this difference was no longer significant. There was no difference in the m-quotient by sex. Neurosurgeons with subspecialties in functional/epilepsy, peripheral nerve, radiosurgery, neuro-oncology/skull base, and vascular have the highest median h-indices; general, pediatric, and spine neurosurgeons have the lowest median h-indices. By summing the manually calculated Scopus h-indices of all individuals within a department, the top 5 programs for publication productivity are University of California, San Francisco; Barrow Neurological Institute; Johns Hopkins University; University of Pittsburgh; and University of California, Los Angeles. Conclusions This study represents the most detailed publication analysis of academic neurosurgeons and their programs to date. The results for the metrics presented should be viewed as benchmarks for comparison purposes. It is our hope that organized neurosurgery will adopt and continue to refine bibliometric profiling of individuals and departments.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This simple yet intuitively descriptive index has generated much discussion in various fields in medicine, including anesthesiology, 36 hepatology, 39 otolaryngology, 47 radiation oncology, 40 radiology, 41 surgery, 50 urology, 9 and neurosurgery. 2,33,38,45 As of July 2013, Hirsch's landmark paper has been cited almost 3200 times (per Google Scholar).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

An analysis of publication productivity for 1225 academic neurosurgeons and 99 departments in the United States

Khan¹,

Thompson

Taylor

et al. 2014

JNS

108

120

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…1,4,12,[14][15][16]24,27,31,32 In 2013, Kalra and Kestle that host accredited pediatric fellowship programs. They found that the publishing productivity of the pediatric neurosurgeons in these groups, measured using the h-and g-indices, was on par with the productivity of neurosurgeons in all academic departments.…”

Section: ©Aans 2014mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bibliometric evaluation of pediatric neurosurgery in North America

Klimo

Venable

Khan

et al. 2014

PED

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Object The application of bibliometric techniques to academic neurosurgery has been the focus of several recent publications. The authors provide here a detailed analysis of all active pediatric neurosurgeons in North America and their respective departments. Methods Using Scopus and Google Scholar, a bibliometric profile for every known active pediatric neurosurgeon in North America was created using the following citation metrics: h-, contemporary h-, g-, and e-indices and the m-quotient. Various subgroups were compared. Departmental productivity from 2008 through 2013 was measured, and departments were ranked on the basis of cumulative h- and e-indices and the total number of publications and citations. Lorenz curves were created, and Gini coefficients were calculated for all departments with 4 or more members. Results Three hundred twelve pediatric neurosurgeons (260 male, 52 female) were included for analysis. For the entire group, the median h-index, m-quotient, contemporary h-, g-, and e-indices, and the corrected g- and e-indices were 10, 0.59, 7, 18, 17, 1.14, and 1.01, respectively; the range for each index varied widely. Academic pediatric neurosurgeons associated with fellowship programs (compared with unassociated neurosurgeons), academic practitioners (compared with private practitioners), and men (compared with women) had superior measurements. There was no significant difference between American and Canadian pediatric neurosurgeons. The mean Gini coefficient for publications was 0.45 (range 0.18–0.70) and for citations was 0.53 (range 0.25–0.80). Conclusions This study represents the most exhaustive evaluation of academic productivity for pediatric neurosurgeons in North America to date. These results should serve as benchmarks for future studies.

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“…These bibliometric indices-the h-index in particular-have been widely applied to neurosurgery [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. Using this database, we identified the 25 top-ranked North American pediatric neurosurgeons based on the manually calculated h-index from Scopus (Elsevier, www.scopus.com) [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An application of Bradford’s law: identification of the core journals of pediatric neurosurgery and a regional comparison of citation density

et al. 2014

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Standardizing the Evaluation of Scientific and Academic Performance in Neurosurgery—Critical Review of the “h” Index and its Variants

Cited by 82 publications

References 30 publications

An analysis of publication productivity for 1225 academic neurosurgeons and 99 departments in the United States

An analysis of publication productivity for 1225 academic neurosurgeons and 99 departments in the United States

Bibliometric evaluation of pediatric neurosurgery in North America

An application of Bradford’s law: identification of the core journals of pediatric neurosurgery and a regional comparison of citation density

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