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Comparative analysis between impact factor and h-index for pharmacology and psychiatry journals

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Abstract

Using strictly the same parameters (identical two publication years (2004–2005) and identical one-year citation window (2006)), IF 2006 was compared with h-index 2006 for two samples of “Pharmacology and Pharmacy” and “Psychiatry” journals computed from the ISI Web of Science. For the two samples, the IF and the h-index rankings of the journals are very different. The correlation coefficient between the IF and the h-index is high for Psychiatry but lower for Pharmacology. The linearity test performed between the h-index and \( \,IF^{{{\frac{\alpha }{\alpha \, + 1}}}} .\,n\,^{{{\frac{1}{\alpha \, + 1}}}} \) showed the great sensitivity of the model compared with α. The IF and h-index can be completely complementary when evaluating journals of the same scientific discipline.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Lyon, Lyon, 69008, France

    Pascal Bador & Thierry Lafouge

  2. Centre de Documentation Pharmaceutique, équipe ELICO, ISPB-Faculté de Pharmacie, Université Lyon 1, 8 avenue Rockefeller, 69373, Lyon cedex 08, France

    Pascal Bador

  3. équipe ELICO, Université Lyon 1, 43 boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne, France

    Thierry Lafouge

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  1. Pascal Bador
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  2. Thierry Lafouge
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Correspondence to Pascal Bador.

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Bador, P., Lafouge, T. Comparative analysis between impact factor and h-index for pharmacology and psychiatry journals. Scientometrics 84, 65–79 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0058-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0058-2

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