Commentary

Sometimes the impact factor outshines the H index

Johannes Hönekopp¹ and Janet Kleber²

¹  Northumbria University, Department of Psychology, Ellison Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK

²  Universität Erfurt, Erziehungswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Fachgebiet Psychologie, Nordhäuserstr. 63, 99089 Erfurt, Germany

author email corresponding author email

Retrovirology 2008, 5:88doi:10.1186/1742-4690-5-88

Published:	6 October 2008

Abstract

Journal impact factor (which reflects a particular journal's quality) and H index (which reflects the number and quality of an author's publications) are two measures of research quality. It has been argued that the H index outperforms the impact factor for evaluation purposes. Using articles first-authored or last-authored by board members of Retrovirology, we show here that the reverse is true when the future success of an article is to be predicted. The H index proved unsuitable for this specific task because, surprisingly, an article's odds of becoming a 'hit' appear independent of the pre-eminence of its author. We discuss implications for the peer-review process.