Cross-field evaluation of publications of research institutes using their contributions to the fields’ MVPs determined by h-index

We propose a cross-field evaluation method for the publications of research institutes. With this approach, we first determine a set of the most visible publications (MVPs) for each field from the publications of all assessed institutes according to the field's h-index. Then, we measure an institute's production in each field by its percentage share (i.e., contribution) to the field's MVPs. Finally, we obtain an institute's cross-field production measure as the average of its contributions to all fields. The proposed approach is proven empirically to be reasonable, intuitive to understand, and uniformly applicable to various sets of institutes and fields of different publication and citation patterns. The field and cross-field production measures obtained by the proposed approach not only allow linear ranking of institutes, but also reveal the degree of their production difference.

► The h-index is used to determine a field's most visible publications (MVPs). ► An institute is measured by its contribution (percentage share) to the field's MVPs. ► A cross-field evaluation of the institute is the average of its contributions to all fields.