Recently, Hirsch proposed the index h, defined as the number of papers a researcher has with citation number = h, as a useful measure to quantify the cumulative output and relevance of his or her scientific output. Braun et al. proposed a Hirsch-typeindex for journals, equal to h if the journal has published h papers, each of which has at least h citations. This is an interesting supplement to the controversial use of journal impact factors to rank journals. As they argue, ‘First, it is robust andtherefore insensitive to an accidental excess of uncited papers and also to one or several outstandingly highly cited papers. Second, it combines the effect of “quantity” (number of publications) and “quality” (citation rate) in a rather specific, balanced way that should reduce the apparent “overrating” of some of the review journals’.
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