Thesis:

h-index and journal impact factor are impeding the course of science like a millstone

Bear in mind the fact that the quality of a scientific publication is not an element in the calculation of these bibliometric factors

Odd eighteen-pointer  =  h-index 17.5 ............. visual pun / visuelles Wortspiel

The use of the impact factor for the evaluation of persons is nonsense. Please consider the San Francisco Declaration, <http://www.ascb.org/dora/>,

 <http://www.labtimes-archiv.de/epaper/LT_13_05/#18>,

<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/340/6134/787.full>, 

<https://publications.mpi-cbg.de/getDocument.html?id=8a8182da238c39d10123955066a00100>, 

<http://mbio.asm.org/content/5/2/e00064-14.full>, 

<http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/818/art%253A10.1007%252Fs00005-008-0024-5.pdf?originUrl=http%3A%2F%2Flink.springer.com%2Farticle%2F10.1007%2Fs00005-008-0024-5&token2=exp=1479827136~acl=%2Fstatic%2Fpdf%2F818%2Fart%25253A10.1007%25252Fs00005-008-0024-5.pdf%3ForiginUrl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Flink.springer.com%252Farticle%252F10.1007%252Fs00005-008-0024-5*~hmac=fb966aaff7494a77b8447d3669f092540c01d5793060eceb0818375d68a705aa>,

<http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11192-011-0561-0> and <https://www.vs.inf.ethz.ch/publ/slides/Citation-Index-Unsinn.pdf>.

 Concerning the misuse of the journal impact factor in connection with a discussion of hunting of authors for publishing in journals with high impact factor, the following contributions are also worth to be read:

 <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/09/how-journals-nature-science-cell-damage-science>,

 <http://www.labtimes-archiv.de/epaper/LT_14_01/#16>,

 <http://www.thecostofknowledge.com/>, <http://science.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/60.full>,

 <https://elifesciences.org/content/5/e13323>,

 <http://laborjournal.de/rubric/essays/e16_01.lasso>,

 <https://scholarlyoa.com/2014/01/02/list-of-predatory-publishers-2014/> and

 <http://www.labtimes-archiv.de/epaper/LT_15_03/#18>.

 A good summary on the h-index offers Wikipedia: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index>. Because of shortcomings of the h-index, new indices were created [e.g.

<http://de.slideshare.net/KNOWeSCAPE2014/skno-we-scape2014thesssidiropoulos>,

<http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11192-014-1515-0#/page-1>,

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altmetrics>, and

 <http://www.laborjournal.de/rubric/essays/e16_11.lasso>], which also should enable the evaluation of scientists without knowledge of their work.

  Recommendations for improving the personal h-index

[< http://de.slideshare.net/zwentang/how-to-increase-your-h-index-and-paper-citation-h-index>,

 <https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-sneaky-tricks-used-by-academicians-to-artificially-increase-their-h-index>,

 <https://transformativelearning.nl/2012/04/26/publish-or-perish-improving-your-h-factor-made-easy-through-hbay/>,

 <http://www3.nd.edu/~ydong1/papers/WSDM15-Dong-Johnson-Chawla-hindex-scientific-impact.pdf>,

 <http://bulletin.eatcs.org/index.php/beatcs/article/view/38/34>,

<http://researchtoolsbox.blogspot.co.at/2015/08/10-simple-steps-to-maximize-your.html>, <http://eprints.rclis.org/20496/1/30366-105857-1-PB.pdf>] are often far from scientific ethics.

Negative excesses, somehow linked with h-index, are multiauthor papers or hyperauthorship [e.g., <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_authorship>,

 <http://www.labtimes-archiv.de/epaper/LT_15_01/#18>,

 <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.1097/epdf>,

 <http://sciencewatch.com/articles/multiauthor-papers-onward-and-upward>, <http://sciencewatch.com/articles/single-author-papers-waning-share-output-still-providing-tools-progress>, and

 <https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/cpa/article/view/5334>], with their mass production of citations. One self-citation of one author leads to citation points for all others [compare, e.g.,

 <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/long-author-lists-on-research-papers-are-threatening-the-academic-work-system-10279748.html>, and <http://jme.bmj.com/content/39/8/509.abstract>].

To find further relevant information, search in the Google and Google Scholar databases for h-index and impact factor combined with the words misuse and/or impeding as well as for multiauthor papers and hyperauthorship. 

All links were checked in November 2016. The generous technical help of W. Schuehly and W. Obermayer is gratefully acknowledged.