more metrics - was:geek novels

[Robert Holmes-2]

So all this scoring of ourselves against the geek novel list reminded me of
a couple of metrics I recently came across in Physics World. One is the
"h-index" (http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/8/9/1), which quantifies an
individuals scientific output as the number of papers (peer-reviewed) you
have written that have been cited at least that number of times. My h-index
is 1 (I've written one peer-reviewed paper that got cited once); real
scientists score in the 20-40 range after 20 years or so in the business. So
what's the highest h-index in FRIAM?

The Physics World correspondence that followed their item on the h-index
drew a parallel with the Eddington Number E, invented by famed astronomer
and amateur cyclist Arthur Eddington. E is defined as  the highest number of
days in your life on which you have cycled more than E miles. My E is about
15. Eddington's was 87 when he died. So who's got the highest E number here?

Robert

(h, E) = (1, 15)
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[Giles Bowkett]

h, E = 0, 0

(yikes.)

On 11/23/05, Robert Holmes <rholmes62 at gmail.com> wrote:

> So all this scoring of ourselves against the geek novel list reminded me of
> a couple of metrics I recently came across in Physics World. One is the
> "h-index" (http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/8/9/1),
> which quantifies an individuals scientific output as the number of papers
> (peer-reviewed) you have written that have been cited at least that number
> of times. My h-index is 1 (I've written one peer-reviewed paper that got
> cited once); real scientists score in the 20-40 range after 20 years or so
> in the business. So what's the highest h-index in FRIAM?
>
>  The Physics World correspondence that followed their item on the h-index
> drew a parallel with the Eddington Number E, invented by famed astronomer
> and amateur cyclist Arthur Eddington. E is defined as  the highest number of
> days in your life on which you have cycled more than E miles. My E is about
> 15. Eddington's was 87 when he died. So who's got the highest E number here?
>
>  Robert
>
>  (h, E) = (1, 15)
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at Mission Cafe
> Wed Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, maps, etc. at
> http://www.friam.org
>
>

--
Giles Bowkett = Giles Goat Boy
http://www.gilesgoatboy.org/

[Russell Standish]

On Wed, Nov 23, 2005 at 12:06:30PM -0700, Robert Holmes wrote:
> So all this scoring of ourselves against the geek novel list reminded me of
> a couple of metrics I recently came across in Physics World. One is the
> "h-index" (http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/8/9/1), which quantifies an
> individuals scientific output as the number of papers (peer-reviewed) you
> have written that have been cited at least that number of times. My h-index
> is 1 (I've written one peer-reviewed paper that got cited once); real
> scientists score in the 20-40 range after 20 years or so in the business. So
> what's the highest h-index in FRIAM?

20 is a pretty high h number. You can compute h approximately quite
easily from Google Scholar, a little less easily from ISI. I did it
for myself, both my PhD supervisors and several other academic
individuals I know of. My h number was 7 according to Google, and 6
according to ISI. My first PhD supervisor was about 5, and my second
one about 23. The second supervisor is considered a leader in his
field. Nobel prize winners were typically reported with h values in the
30s. Most other scientists I am acquainted with (of my vintage) came
in under 10, so my h-value was actually fairly average (gave me some
sort of comfort, at least).

Whilst the h value is considerably better than raw publication and
citation values, it is still prone to the fashion effect. Working in a
fashionable area of science (eg gene sequencing) will give you a higher
h score than an unfashionable one (eg complex systems).

>
> The Physics World correspondence that followed their item on the h-index
> drew a parallel with the Eddington Number E, invented by famed astronomer
> and amateur cyclist Arthur Eddington. E is defined as  the highest number of
> days in your life on which you have cycled more than E miles. My E is about
> 15. Eddington's was 87 when he died. So who's got the highest E number here?
>

The longest distance I did/do regularly is about 10km. Translating
this into miles, that would be around 7 (IIRC)? I have occasionally
done longer distances, of course, but not more than 7 times...

So I would have to be (7,7) then ...


> Robert
>
> (h, E) = (1, 15)

> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at Mission Cafe
> Wed Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, maps, etc. at http://www.friam.org

--
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virus. It is an electronic signature, that may be used to verify this
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/Prof Russell Standish                  Phone [phone] (mobile)
Mathematics                               0425 253119 (")
UNSW SYDNEY 2052                 R.Standish at unsw.edu.au            
Australia                                http://parallel.hpc.unsw.edu.au/rks
            International prefix  +612, Interstate prefix 02
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Bruce Sawhill]

my E number is about 30.

Bruce


On Nov 23, 2005, at 1:30 PM, Russell Standish wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 23, 2005 at 12:06:30PM -0700, Robert Holmes wrote:
>> So all this scoring of ourselves against the geek novel list  
>> reminded me of
>> a couple of metrics I recently came across in Physics World. One  
>> is the
>> "h-index" (http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/8/9/1), which  
>> quantifies an
>> individuals scientific output as the number of papers (peer-
>> reviewed) you
>> have written that have been cited at least that number of times.  
>> My h-index
>> is 1 (I've written one peer-reviewed paper that got cited once); real
>> scientists score in the 20-40 range after 20 years or so in the  
>> business. So
>> what's the highest h-index in FRIAM?
>
> 20 is a pretty high h number. You can compute h approximately quite
> easily from Google Scholar, a little less easily from ISI. I did it
> for myself, both my PhD supervisors and several other academic
> individuals I know of. My h number was 7 according to Google, and 6
> according to ISI. My first PhD supervisor was about 5, and my second
> one about 23. The second supervisor is considered a leader in his
> field. Nobel prize winners were typically reported with h values in  
> the
> 30s. Most other scientists I am acquainted with (of my vintage) came
> in under 10, so my h-value was actually fairly average (gave me some
> sort of comfort, at least).
>
> Whilst the h value is considerably better than raw publication and
> citation values, it is still prone to the fashion effect. Working in a
> fashionable area of science (eg gene sequencing) will give you a  
> higher
> h score than an unfashionable one (eg complex systems).
>
>>
>> The Physics World correspondence that followed their item on the h-
>> index
>> drew a parallel with the Eddington Number E, invented by famed  
>> astronomer
>> and amateur cyclist Arthur Eddington. E is defined as  the highest  
>> number of
>> days in your life on which you have cycled more than E miles. My E  
>> is about
>> 15. Eddington's was 87 when he died. So who's got the highest E  
>> number here?
>>
>
> The longest distance I did/do regularly is about 10km. Translating
> this into miles, that would be around 7 (IIRC)? I have occasionally
> done longer distances, of course, but not more than 7 times...
>
> So I would have to be (7,7) then ...
>
>
>> Robert
>>
>> (h, E) = (1, 15)
>
>> ============================================================
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at Mission Cafe
>> Wed Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, maps, etc. at http://
>> www.friam.org
>
> --
> *PS: A number of people ask me about the attachment to my email, which
> is of type "application/pgp-signature". Don't worry, it is not a
> virus. It is an electronic signature, that may be used to verify this
> email came from me if you have PGP or GPG installed. Otherwise, you
> may safely ignore this attachment.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
> A/Prof Russell Standish                  Phone [phone] (mobile)
> Mathematics                               0425 253119 (")
> UNSW SYDNEY 2052                 R.Standish at unsw.edu.au
> Australia                                http://
> parallel.hpc.unsw.edu.au/rks
>             International prefix  +612, Interstate prefix 02
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at Mission Cafe
> Wed Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, maps, etc. at http://
> www.friam.org