How to Count Citations If You Must

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Perry, Motty; Reny, Philip J.
• 署名单位: University of Warwick; University of Chicago
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20140850
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 2722-2741
• 关键词: interpersonal comparability; Intellectual influence; HIRSCH-INDEX; UNIVERSALITY; IMPACT

摘要

Citation indices are regularly used to inform critical decisions about promotion, tenure, and the allocation of billions of research dollars. Nevertheless, most indices (e.g., the h-index) are motivated by intuition and rules of thumb, resulting in undesirable conclusions. In contrast, five natural properties lead us to a unique new index, the Euclidean index, that avoids several shortcomings of the h-index and its successors. The Euclidean index is simply the Euclidean length of an individual's citation list. Two empirical tests suggest that the Euclidean index outperforms the h-index in practice.