Author-Suggested, Weighted Citation Index: A Novel Approach for Determining the Contribution of Individual Researchers

• Main Author: Tanmoy Konar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-07-01
• Series: Publications
• Subjects: scientometric indexes; scholarly publications; scientific contribution of individual; author-suggested weighted citation index
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/9/3/30

A novel scientometric index, named ‘author-suggested, weighted citation index’ (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msub><mi>A</mi><mi>w</mi></msub></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>-index) is proposed to indicate the scientific contribution of any individual researcher. For calculation of the <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msub><mi>A</mi><mi>w</mi></msub></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>-index, it is suggested that during the submission of a scholarly article, the corresponding author would provide a statement, agreed upon by all the authors, containing weightage factors against each author of the article. The author who contributed more to the article would secure a higher weightage factor. The summation of the weightage factors of all the authors of an article should be unity. The citation points a researcher receives from a scholarly publication is the product of his/her weightage factor for that article and the total number of citations of the article. The <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msub><mi>A</mi><mi>w</mi></msub></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>-index of any individual researcher is the summation of the citation points he/she receives for all his/her publications as an author. The <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msub><mi>A</mi><mi>w</mi></msub></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>-index provides the opportunity to the group of authors of a multi-authored article to determine the quantum of partial citations to be attributed to each of them. Through an illustrative example, a comparison of the proposed index with the major scientometric indexes is presented to highlight the advantages of the <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msub><mi>A</mi><mi>w</mi></msub></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>-index.