The h‐index beats the impact factor

This issue has two papers with results on real industrial software projects. The first, On the testing of user-configurable software systems using firewalls, by Robinson and White, presents the ‘just-intime’ testing strategy for user-configurable software and includes results on commercial software. The second, A case study in model-based testing of specifications and implementations, by Miller and Strooper, presents a case study of testing software specifications. Before discussing the h-index, I have the pleasure to make an announcement about the journal. In 2012, STVR will have eight issues rather than the four issues per year we have had for the last 21 years. This will allow us to clear the backlog of papers and support the increasing amount of research in the software testing field. My last editorial [1] discussed the reasons why scientists publish papers and emphasized publishing to influence either the research field or the industry. I also wrote an editorial [2] on the problems with the way journals are often evaluated by publishers and universities, the ‘journal impact factor’ [3]. My opinion of this deeply flawed criterion has not changed, but I recently learned about another measure that looks more promising. During our promotion discussions this fall, all the candidates were presenting their ‘h-indexes’. Most of us had never heard of this measurement and were both curious and dubious. The h-index was proposed by J. E. Hirsch as follows [4]: