H-index and academic rank in psychiatry: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: The Hirsch-index (H-index) is a bibliometric measure of research productivity and citation impact. In this systematic review and meta-analysis we aimed to derive pooled H-index benchmarks across professorial academic ranks in psychiatry, and to determine whether H-index differs significantly between successive academic ranks. Methods: PRISMA guidelines were followed in conducting a comprehensive search using the databases Ovid MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, and Google Scholar. Key search terms included: “Bibliometrics”, H index”, “H-index”, “Career Mobility”, “academic rank”, “Faculty, Medical”, “psychiatry”, “academic psychiatry”, “psychiatric”, and “Psychiatry in Literature”. Papers reporting data on mean H-index stratified by professorial academic rank were included. The DerSimonian and Laird random effects model was used to conduct the meta-analysis. Results: Four studies (all North American) were included in the systematic review and three in the meta-analysis. Mean H-index increased across successive academic rank. Pooled random effects estimates for mean H-index were: 4.02 (95% CI: 3.01–5.02) for Assistant Professor, 8.04 (95% CI: 6.28–9.79) for Associate Professor, and 21.22 (95% CI: 19.96–22.48) for Full Professor. Conclusion: H-index increases with successive academic rank in psychiatry, with pooled benchmarks identified for each professorial level. Available data are limited to North American institutions, underscoring the need for Australasian studies.