Hirsch (2005) has proposed the
h-index as a single-number criterion to evaluate the scientific output of a researcher (Ball, 2005): A scientist has index
h if
h of his/her
Np papers have at least
h citations each, and the other (
Np −
h) papers have fewer than
h citations each. In a study on committee peer review (Bornmann & Daniel, 2005) we found that on average the
h-index for successful applicants for post-doctoral research fellowships was consistently higher than for non-successful applicants.