A proposal for a dynamic h-type index

Since the introduction of the h-index in 2005 (Hirsch, 2005), many h-type indices have been proposed. In this short note, we propose yet another h-type index, which differs from other proposals in the way that it takes recent change in the value of the h-index into account. As such, we are convinced that this proposal is more useful for hiring purposes than the lifetime-achievement h-index. For the reader’s convenience, we recall the definition of the h-index. Consider a scientist’s list of publications, ranked according to the number of citations received. Then this scientist’s h-index is defined as the highest rank such that the first h publications received each at least h citations. It is well-known that this definition can be applied to many more source-item relations than a scientist’s publications and citations. For simplicity, however, we use the original publication-citation terminology, but note that our proposal is applicable to most of these other relations. These first h articles form the h-core. The number of articles in the h-core and the list of citations received by articles in the hcore are always well-defined. As the h-index does not take