h-index

noun

An author-level metric that attempts to measure both the productivity and the citation impact of the publications of a scientist or scholar, based on a set of most cited papers and the number of citations in other publications.

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Meanings

noun
  1. An author-level metric that attempts to measure both the productivity and the citation impact of the publications of a scientist or scholar, based on a set of most cited papers and the number of citations in other publications.

    A h-index of 10 means that a researcher has published 10 papers that were cited at least ten times.

    2020, Alan Kelly, How Scientists Communicate […] , Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 196

Origin

The h stands for “highly cited” and Hirsch, since the metric was suggested in 2005 by physicist Jorge E. Hirsch.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

h-index. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/h-index

MLA

“h-index.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/h-index. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “h-index,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/h-index.

Source: h-index on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.