Title: Comparison of the h-index for Different Fields of Research Using Bootstrap Methodology,
Abstract: An important disadvantage of the h-index is that typically it cannot take
into account the specific field of research of a researcher. Usually sample
point estimates of the average and median h-index values for the various fields
are reported that are highly variable and dependent of the specific samples and
it would be useful to provide confidence intervals of prediction accuracy. In
this paper we apply the non-parametric bootstrap technique for constructing
confidence intervals for the h-index for different fields of research. In this
way no specific assumptions about the distribution of the empirical hindex are
required as well as no large samples since that the methodology is based on
resampling from the initial sample. The results of the analysis showed
important differences between the various fields. The performance of the
bootstrap intervals for the mean and median h-index for most fields seems to be
rather satisfactory as revealed by the performed simulation.