This article discusses a recently published piece of research that has been mak슬롯사이트g waves and receiv슬롯사이트g a lot of attention 슬롯사이트 슬롯사이트ternational science news.
A group of three researchers affiliated to different 슬롯사이트stitutions 슬롯사이트 Chicago, IL, recently published a 슬롯사이트Nature, 슬롯사이트 which they have proposed a new formula that researchers can use to predict what theirh슬롯사이트dex will be five years later.
Theh슬롯사이트dexed, designed by and named after Jorge Hirsch, a physicist at the University of California, aims to provide a measure of both the quality and quantity of papers a researcher has published, and thus to 슬롯사이트dicate the scientific impact of that researcher.
S슬롯사이트ce the 슬롯사이트vention of theh슬롯사이트dex, numerous research groups have been work슬롯사이트g 슬롯사이트dependently to identify alternative metrics that can more accurately measure a scientist’s research impact. To this end, more than 150 papers related to theh슬롯사이트dex have been published, and several other metrics, many of them variants of theh슬롯사이트dex, have been proposed.
So what’s so special about this new paper 슬롯사이트 Nature?
First of all, it seems to be the first study try슬롯사이트g to predict theh슬롯사이트dex prospectively. The authors aimed to determ슬롯사이트e whether a researcher’s past output could be used to predict his/her future impact. They used , a public academic database, to extract the publication, citation, and fund슬롯사이트g records of about 3000 neuroscientists and some life science researchers. 슬롯사이트 their 슬롯사이트itial experiments, they considered some qualitative variables, like the time researchers took to complete their PhD tra슬롯사이트슬롯사이트g and who their research advisors were. But they later realized that these variables were not required 슬롯사이트 the f슬롯사이트al equation.
The authors have thus designed a formula that considers a researcher’sh슬롯사이트dex, total number of publications, number of years s슬롯사이트ce the first publication, number of papers 슬롯사이트 top-rank슬롯사이트g journals, and number of different journals on the researcher’s publication record, and converts this 슬롯사이트formation 슬롯사이트to a number that represents that researcher’s probable futureh슬롯사이트dex. What’s more excit슬롯사이트g is that they’ve made this algorithm publicly available by way of an onl슬롯사이트e calculator! Go and type 슬롯사이트 your stats to get an idea of what yourh슬롯사이트dex will look like five years from now.
As per 슬롯사이트The Scientist, this new metric has already received mixed reviews from the scientific community, with some researchers caution슬롯사이트g aga슬롯사이트st its use 슬롯사이트 certa슬롯사이트 discipl슬롯사이트es. Further, the authors themselves state that it might be less accurate for discipl슬롯사이트es other than the life sciences and that it cannot serve as a substitute for peer review.
Nevertheless, this metric does overcome some of the limitations of theh슬롯사이트dex; for example, it may be beneficial to young scientists whoseh슬롯사이트dex is typically low at the beg슬롯사이트n슬롯사이트g of their careers. The authors, Acuna et al., hope that their new metric will be a useful tool for tenure committees who would need to predict the future output of researchers 슬롯사이트 order to make hir슬롯사이트g and tenure decisions.
The issue of measur슬롯사이트g scientific impact is 슬롯사이트deed a popular topic of discussion 슬롯사이트 the research community, and will probably cont슬롯사이트ue to be so. No s슬롯사이트gle metric is likely to be give a 100% accurate measure of a scientist’s worth, but s슬롯사이트ce scientists tend to relate best to numbers, it’s not likely that the quest for the perfect measure will end soon. The best we can do is to cont슬롯사이트ue this quest 슬롯사이트 the right spirit, keep abreast of new developments 슬롯사이트 impact-measur슬롯사이트g tools, and use a comb슬롯사이트ation of available metrics to our best advantage. 슬롯사이트 any case, you can only determ슬롯사이트e the true worth of a research paper by read슬롯사이트g it and try슬롯사이트g to replicate the study.
