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H-Value, Strike Rate Index and F1000 factor: Alternatives to the Impact Factor

The Impact Factor (IF) has been around for 50 years as a measure of the influence of a scientific journal. Over the years, the IF has been subject to much criticism as it measures only the overall quality of a journal, not the quality of the individual papers within it. Opinion suggests it may now be time to get a new perspective and look at alternatives to the IF.

One such alternative that has recently been released into the bibliometric community is the H-Value or Hirsch number. This measure was suggested by Jorge Hirsch as a way to 'quantify the cumulative impact and relevance of an individual's scientific research output' {1}. For each individual, this value takes into account many pieces of information, including the number of publications over a particular number of years, the number of citations per publication and the journal that the paper was published in.

Another proposed method of quantifying the impact of scientific research is the Strike Rate Index (SRI). This is based on the 'log relationship of the h-index and the size of the journal and allows journals across diverse fields to be compared to each other' {2}.
At F1000 Medicine, we have a unique article ranking system and rate articles based on their own merits, regardless of the journal they were published in. We use a weighted average with positive bias based on the number of evaluations an article receives, as well as the ratings of those evaluations.

The IF alone is no longer sufficient for quantifying the impact of scientific research. A much more uniform method is needed which can be applied to journals across all fields.

References:

1. Hirsch JE. An index to quantify and individual's scientific research output. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2005 102: 16569-16572.

2. Barendse W. The strike rate index: a new index for journal quality based on journal size and the h-index of citations. Biomedical Digital Libraries 2007, 4:3

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Posted by Natalie Davall on Friday Feb 15, 2008, Category: Impact factor versus... | Permalink