Applying successive H indices in the institutional evaluation: A case study

was employed to calculate the individual performance of the staff, using the g-index created by Leo Egghe (2006) and the A-index developed by Jin Bi-Hui (2006) as complementary indicators. The successive H indices proposed by András Schubert (2007) were used to determine the scientific performance of each department as well as the general performance of the institution. The possible advantages of the method for the institutional evaluation processes were exposed. One of the most recent observations carried out regarding the widely discussed h-index (Hirsch, 2005) has called attention to the possibility of using this index as a basis for the calculus of a series of H indices. Recently, Schubert (2007) proposed a successive h-index for the journal– publishing group–country hierarchy, where the h-index of the journals (h 1) determines the h-index value of each publishing group (h 2), and this determines the h-index value of each country (h 3). The proposal turns the h-index into an evaluative indicator of the publishing activity, in a simple and objective form, which minimizes some of the limitations that habitually influence the use of the Journals Impact Factor (Garfield, 2007). Schubert's (2007) successive H indices showed the development of publishing groups from the United States, England, The Netherlands, and Germany, with a wide coverage in Thompson Scientific databases. In the same article, Schubert expressed the idea of using successive H indices in the evaluation of networks from institutions, countries, or other aggregation levels, and even used as a possible example the researcher–institution–country hierarchy. Schubert's (2007) proposal always takes into account the researcher as a basic cell for the determination of the institutional impact. The use of a successive h-index as an indicator might influence the development of the intellectual capital of scientists and scholars, and it conditions the impact of the institutional, sectorial, or national scientific research to the development and international visibility of the institutional researcher's staff. Consequently, the incidence of specific individuals or isolated articles is minimized , and a more holistic and systemic vision from the evaluation processes of the scientific production is offered. This study describes the use of successive H indices at a micro level, on a researcher–department–institute hierarchy corresponding to the National Scientific Research Center (CNIC) from Cuba. As a sample, the researcher's staff from CNIC in the Year 2006, and their scientific production covered by the Web of Table 1 shows the CNIC researcher's staff ranking, according …