A new approach to measuring the quality index of publishing activity for authors and institutions

Current bibliographic databases incorporate vast volumes of information, thus necessitating the identification of a “core” subset to evaluate the highest-quality research outputs. The Hirsch index, an objective bibliometric indicator utilized in gauging an author’s performance and impact, can be calculated for both the entire database or its core content. This study introduces a novel quality index for measuring the publishing activity of individual authors and institutions, which is defined as the ratio between the Hirsch index values for the entire database and its core. The approach enables multiple comparisons: between authors, departments, universities, and even the roles of specific authors within institutions in terms of their publishing activity. Its application was demonstrated through a case study of Samara National Research University. Based on the results obtained, strategic recommendations to improve the quality of the university’s publishing activity were outlined.