Statistical criterion of manipulation of the Hirsch index and its application in the management of science

Abstract

Currently, the universally recognized scientometric indicator – the Hirsch index – is being subjected to increasingly harsh criticism, and in some cases it is even proposed to abandon it altogether. But it is known that the management of science, like any other sphere of human activity, requires measurements. For the authors of this article, it is obvious that the Hirsch index itself is flawed, but the methodology of its application in the management of science. In addition, in the conditions of the digital economy (information society), there are opportunities for algorithmic exclusion of errors from measurement results.

The most important source of systematic errors in measuring the productivity of scientific activity is the manipulation of the Hirsch index by artificially “increasing” the citation of publications.

The authors of this article substantiate the criteria for the inaccuracy of the Hirsch index of a researcher, and propose a method for algorithmically excluding errors from the measurement results of this indicator. Research methods: analysis of scientific literature and best practices in the management of scientific activities at universities (benchmarking), methods of set theory, methods of qualimetry and expert assessments, methods of mathematical statistics, including the method of rocky scree. Methodological foundations of the research: systemic, sociological, informational-cognitive, qualimetric and probabilistic-statistical approaches.