H-index: Why should you care?

Problem: Many aspiring academicians' performance are based on several quantitative indices, and the h-index is the most commonly used marker.

What is the h-index?
H-index is a marker used to measure your scientific "impact" using citations as the most important driving force. H-index is equalvalent to the number h articles that have been cited at least h times.  So, if you have  5 articles that have been cited at least 5 or more times, your h-index is 5. If you have 40 articles that have been cited at least 40 times, your h-index is 40. So, I have about 20 articles but only 8 have been cited at least 8 times, so my h-index is 8. Makes sense?

Why should you care?
You should care because many institutions are using the h-index as a variable to allocate resources. At UCLA, for example, h-index is being considered for allocating space for faculty and for academic promotion!

How do you find your h-index:

1. The easiest way is to create a profile on Google Scholar.
2. Google Scholar will walk you through a series of steps regarding your publications.
3. Then, viola, Google Scholar will generate h-index.

This is not a perfect system and has limitations.

Additional Reading / Resources:

• Thoughts on h-index 
• Wikipedia.