These short educational videos in animated and talking head formats provide an introduction to the h-index, a commonly used scholarly metric for assessing authors’ publication output and citation impact. The videos explain how the h-index is calculated, how it is used to assess researchers, and its key limitations. They highlight important considerations, such as disciplinary differences in publication and citation practices, the impact of career stage on h-index values, and variations in how different database coverage affects the metric.
Designed for students, researchers, research managers, and librarians, and anyone interested in scholarly metrics, this resource encourages a critical approach to quantitative indicators used in research assessment. While the h-index is frequently used in academia, this video emphasizes its shortcomings and illustrates why it should never be used in isolation when evaluating researchers.
Created with support from Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) by a team at the Scholarly Communications Lab (ScholCommLab), the videos are licensed under CC-BY, allowing sharing, re-use, and remixing (including translation) for all viewers.
Haustein, S., Hare, M., Dorsch, I., Chen, C. M.-L., Woods, H., Déry, J.-A., & Archambault, M.-J. (2025, March 5). What is the h-index and what are its limitations? Or: Stop using the h-index [Animation]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14975364
Haustein, S., Hare, M., Dorsch, I., Chen, C. M.-L., & Woods, H. (2025, March 5). What is the h-index and what are its limitations? Or: Stop using the h-index [Talking Head]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14975464