The use of the Hirsch index in benchmarking hepatic surgery research

BackgroundThe Hirsch index (h-index) is recognized as an effective way to summarize an individual's scientific research output. However, a benchmark for evaluating surgeon scientists in the field of hepatic surgery is still not available.MethodsA total of 3,251 authors who published between 1949 and 2011 were identified using the Scopus identification number. The h-index, the total number of cited document, the total number of citations, and the scientific age were calculated for each author using both Scopus and Google Scholar.ResultsThe median h-index was 6 and the median scientific age, assessed with Google Scholar, was 19 years. The numbers of cited documents, numbers of citations, and h-indexes obtained from Scopus and Google Scholar showed good correlation with one another; however, the results from the 2 databases were modified in different ways by scientific age. By plotting scientific age against h-index percentiles an h-index growth chart for both Scopus database and Google Scholar was provided.ConclusionsThis analysis provides a first benchmark to assess surgeon scientists' productivity in the field of liver surgery.