Finding h-index in Google Scholar

Answered By: Rhav Lutchman
Last Updated: 17 May 2022 Views: 34745

About the h-index

  • h-index is a number which represents a combination of a number of publications and the number of citations of those publications
  • h-index is subject specific and should not be compared across different disciplines
  • h-index increases with time and so early career researchers are disadvantaged
  • not all authors will have a h-index calculated for them by Scopus and Google Scholar
    • Scopus: publications need to be indexed by Scopus (Scopus applies rules to selecting publications to index) for a h-index of an author to be available (if publications are not indexed, a request for indexing may be submitted)
    • Google Scholar: a profile must be created by an author before h-index can be provided by Google Scholar 
  • it is possible for an author to only have a h-index in one, Scopus or Google Scholar, and not the other
  • Google Scholar h-index will generally be higher than Scopus h-index
  • h-index is not calculated by CRO team

How to find h-index in Google Scholar

  1. Access Google Scholar and type the name of the author into the search box.
    The Google Scholar search page. John Smith is typed into the search field. A link to "user profiles for John smith" display below.
  2. Selecting the user profiles link will provide a list of all profiles created in Google Scholar for the searched terms.
  3. Find the correct profile and open it.
  4. Check the publications list against the list of publications in the academic’s staff profile. 
  5. Their h-index can be found on the right-hand side of the screen in the "Cited by" section.A screenshot of the profile page for Christopher John Smith. There is a table in the Cited by section. The first row shows the h-index with values for all time and since 2014.
  6. It is possible that an author’s profile is not listed at the top of the page (this could be the result of a particular search and Google Scholar indexing).

If an author profile is not found​

  1. If a profile is not found using author’s name and surname, the author may be searched using one of their publications (listed in their academic profile page).
  2. Copy and paste the title of one of the recent publications into the Google Scholar search box.
  3. Click on the name of the author you are searching for.
  4. If you are not able to click the name, the author doesn’t have a Google Scholar profile and has no Google Scholar h-index.
  5. If you are able to select and open the name, you will be taken to the author’s profile.The Google Scholar webpage shows a specific article search. Following the article title are the hyperlinked names of the authors.
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