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H-Index Calculations and Journal Impact Factor: Home

A guide explaining the process for calculating your h-index and giving guidance on impact factor in general.

Definitions

Journal Impact Factor

A journal impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year. It is one of the evaluation tools provided by the Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports® (JCR®) database. 

Journal Impact Factor =

Cites in 2024 to articles published in Journal X in 2023 and 2022
Total number of articles published in Journal X in 2023 and 2022

h-index

h-index = The number of papers (N) on a list of publications ranked in descending order by the times cited that have N or more citations.

The h-index was developed by J.E. Hirsch and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Full citation: Hirsch JE. An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2005 Nov 15;102(46):16569-72.

Mount Sinai faculty can use the Scopus database to find their h-index. See the Finding Your h-index tab for more detailed information.