Bibliometrics for Faculty Evaluation: A Statistical Comparison of h-indexes Generated Using Google Scholar and Web of Science Data

Abstract

The growing need for quantification of research performance for promotion and tenure and grant funding decisions has lead many to rely on citation metrics.  There are many metrics to choose from but one of the most common is the h-index.  While the h-index has been criticized by many, the metric itself is not the only concern.  The source of the citation information used to calculate the h-index is also important.  In this case study the h-index was calculated using citation data from Clarivate’s Web of Science (WoS) and Google Scholar (GS) for a selection of faculty working at a large public university.  The h-indexes from the two sources were statistically compared using a student’s t-test and Spearman correlation to determine if the two sources produced significantly different results.  Google Scholar data produced h-indexes that were greater in magnitude (M=18.52, SD=13.641) than those produced by Web of Science data (M=13.13, SD=10.400) however the rank order of the h-indexes from the two sources showed a high degree of similarity.