Scientific index: a complementary scale for the h-index

Scientists are customarily categorised based on their seminal and extraordinary contributions as being top, medium and low, and in this regard the ‘h-index’ is usually cited as a pivotal index to demarcate the scientific credibility of scientists. The h-index was initially proposed by Hirsch1 to provide a global impact of a scientist’s contributions. The h-index, however, provides a rough approximation to a scientist’s multifaceted profile and thus fails to reflect a scientist’s cumulative scientific and research accomplishments. Having said that, some genuine criticisms have cropped …