Google Scholar-based tool gives extra credit to first and last authors

"The h-index - a widely used measure of impact based on publications and citation count over time - treats all of an author's papers equally, irrespective of whether they are a first, last or middle author. A browser extension called GScholarLens now aims to change that for Google Scholar users. Launched earlier this year for the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers, the tool provides a weighted metric, called the Scholar h-index (S h-index), which accounts for a researcher's position in author lists."

"The tool gives corresponding (or last) authors the highest weighting: 100% of the citations that their paper accumulates contributed to their S h-index. First authors receive the second-highest weighting, of 90% of the total citations. Second authors get a 50% weighting. Other co-authors get 25% if there are six or fewer authors, or 10% if there are seven or more authors, according to a preprint published in September by the tool's creators."

"For example, if a researcher is a co-author on a few very highly cited papers and first or last author on several less-cited papers, their h-index will be high, but their S h-index will be low, which could give a more accurate picture of their work. "Overall, productivity-wise, contributions of such authors are mostly collaborative in nature, where they often support large teams but seldom lead small or big projects," says Sharma."

GScholarLens is a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that calculates a Scholar h-index (S h-index) by weighting citations according to author position. Corresponding or last authors receive 100% of a paper's citations toward their S h-index; first authors receive 90%; second authors receive 50%; other co-authors receive 25% when there are six or fewer authors or 10% when there are seven or more. The weighting prioritizes first and last authors as primary contributors in many fields. The S h-index aims to create fairer, more-nuanced evaluation systems by distinguishing leadership roles from collaborative contributions, and weightings may be adjusted based on user feedback.

Read at Nature