What is a good h-index?

Among the 7,710,434 researchers ranked on Science Explorer, the median h-index is 10. An h-index of 17 is at the 75th percentile, 28 at the 90th, 37 at the 95th and 64 at the 99th. The bar depends on the field: the median is 14 in Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology and 4 in Arts and Humanities.

1. 50thpercentile (the median) 10 h-index
2. 75thpercentile 17 h-index
3. 90thpercentile 28 h-index
4. 95thpercentile 37 h-index
5. 99thpercentile 64 h-index

Check an h-index

Each field below has its own page with the same percentiles for its subfields. The column heads can be clicked to sort.

Percentiles are h-index values: 90th means at least 90% of the field's ranked researchers have that h-index or less.

The h-index is the largest number h such that a researcher has h papers cited at least h times each. A researcher with 10 papers cited 10 or more times, and not 11 papers cited 11 or more times, has an h-index of 10. It rewards a body of work that keeps being cited, and it can only rise as papers collect citations.

Every figure is the h-index OpenAlex holds for the researcher, from its author snapshot of 2026-09-23. Google Scholar usually shows a higher h-index for the same person, because it counts books, theses and conference items, and Scopus and Web of Science usually show a lower one, because they cover fewer sources. A number from one source is best compared with percentiles from the same source, so these tables are a guide for OpenAlex figures.

The comparison group is the 7,710,434 researchers Science Explorer ranks (how). Each is counted once at field level and once at subfield level, in the field and the subfield where they have the most papers, so the groups of one level never overlap. Career length is not recorded here, and an h-index grows with years of publishing, so a fair reading compares researchers of a similar age. The h-index also differs between fields and says little about a single paper, so it suits comparison inside a field and not across fields.

What is a good h-index?

Among the 7,710,434 researchers ranked on Science Explorer, the median h-index is 10. An h-index of 17 is at the 75th percentile, 28 at the 90th, 37 at the 95th and 64 at the 99th. The bar depends on the field: the median is 14 in Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology and 4 in Arts and Humanities.

What is the average h-index?

The median h-index of the 7,710,434 ranked researchers is 10 and the mean is 13.3. The mean is higher than the median because a minority of researchers have a very high h-index.

What h-index is in the top 10%?

An h-index of 28 is at the 90th percentile among ranked researchers, and 37 at the 95th. Field matters: the 90th percentile is 35 in Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology and 11 in Arts and Humanities.

Does a good h-index depend on the field?

Yes. Fields differ in how many papers a researcher publishes and how often papers cite each other, so the same h-index stands differently from one to the next. The median is 14 in Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology and 4 in Arts and Humanities.

Where does this h-index come from?

It is the h-index OpenAlex holds for each researcher, from its author snapshot of 2026-09-23. Google Scholar usually shows a higher h-index for the same person and Scopus and Web of Science usually a lower one, so a number is best compared with percentiles from the same source.