Abstract
Citation metrics and h indices differ using different bibliometric databases. We compiled the number of publications, number of citations, h index and year since the first publication from 340 soil researchers from all over the world. On average, Google Scholar has the highest h index, number of publications and citations per researcher, and the Web of Science the lowest. The number of papers in Google Scholar is on average 2.3 times higher and the number of citations is 1.9 times higher compared to the data in the Web of Science. Scopus metrics are slightly higher than that of the Web of Science. The h index in Google Scholar is on average 1.4 times larger than Web of Science, and the h index in Scopus is on average 1.1 times larger than Web of Science. Over time, the metrics increase in all three databases but fastest in Google Scholar. The h index of an individual soil scientist is about 0.7 times the number of years since his/her first publication. There is a large difference between the number of citations, number of publications and the h index using the three databases. From this analysis it can be concluded that the choice of the database affects widely-used citation and evaluation metrics but that bibliometric transfer functions exist to relate the metrics from these three databases. We also investigated the relationship between journal’s impact factor and Google Scholar’s h5-index. The h5-index is a better measure of a journal’s citation than the 2 or 5 year window impact factor.
Highlights
Scientific impact measures are increasingly being used for academic promotions, grant evaluations and evaluation of job vacancy candidates
The number of citations is highest in Google scholar, with a median of 866 citations per author whereas it is 291 in the Web of Science
– There is a large difference between the number of citations, number of publications and the h index using the three different databases
Summary
Scientific impact measures are increasingly being used for academic promotions, grant evaluations and evaluation of job vacancy candidates They are being used for the evaluations of university departments and research centres. The impact factor of a journal has been used – a metric developed by Garfield (1955) whereby the citations and number of papers published over a given period are divided. It is a personal index and provides information on the number of publications of an author and the number of citations: A scholar with an index of h has published h papers with at least h citations each. The h index can be calculated for journals, departments, universities or countries
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
