H&R Block

src: assets.awwwards.com

H&R Block, Inc., or H&R Block, is an American tax preparation company in North America, Australia, and India. The Kansas City-based company also offers payroll, and business consulting services.

Founded in 1955 by brothers Henry W. Bloch and Richard Bloch, H&R Block currently operates approximately 12,000 retail tax offices worldwide. They offer consumer tax software, formerly called TaxCut, as well as online tax preparation and electronic filing from their website.

Video H&R Block

History

During World War II, Henry W. Bloch was a young Army Air Forces navigator who wanted to start a family business with his brothers in Kansas City.

Home from the war in 1946, Henry saw a pamphlet suggesting a bright future for companies serving small businesses, and it fired his imagination. That year, Henry and his older brother, Leon, borrowed $5,000 and opened a small bookkeeping business on Main Street in downtown Kansas City. However, four months later, they had few clients and Leon decided to seek a law degree.

Henry wanted to keep trying with the fledgling business and placed a newspaper ad for help-wanted. He got an unexpected response--from his mother--who proposed that Henry hire his younger brother, Richard, for the job. Henry and Richard Bloch jointly ran their United Business Company, which focused on bookkeeping, but also did some income tax work for clients. The brothers found that doing taxes was time consuming and they decided to end that type of service. One of their clients, John White, an ad salesman for The Kansas City Star newspaper, had a different idea; he suggested the Blochs make tax preparation a separate business and developed an ad announcing $5 tax services. The Blochs were not convinced, but they agreed to run the ad in January 1955. The next day, the brothers had an office full of tax clients, and H&R Block was born.

In 1956, the Blochs decided to expand and picked New York City. The move was profitable, but neither brother wanted to move to New York, so they agreed to sell that regional operation to two local accountants. However, since the would-be buyers could not meet the asking price, the parties agreed the Bloch brothers would get $10,000, plus royalties from the tax operation, creating the first H&R Block franchise tax office. The Bloch brothers chose to spell the name "Block" with a K to ensure the name is not mispronounced "blotch." In the following years, H&R Block grew quickly and went public in 1962, then opened its first tax training school in 1965 to meet the demand for skilled tax professionals at its franchise offices.

A TV ad campaign begun in 1972 featured Henry Bloch and became the springboard for H&R Block becoming one of the most widely recognized brand names in the U.S. In 1980 H&R Block purchased the Compuserve online service.

By 1986, Block was handling more than 10 million tax returns each year and had opened offices in Canada and Australia. That year, Block worked with the Internal Revenue Service to introduce electronic filing. Since then, Block has moved further into the digital realm with tax software and online tax preparation.

The company began to expand in the 1990s into the financial services arena, offering mortgage loans, banking, and business services. H&R Block purchased Olde Discount Stockbrokers and operated as a full-service securities broker-dealer under the name H&R Block Financial Advisors. By 2007, the unit was managing $33 billion in assets, offering investment planning, advice and related financial products and services, and employed 900 financial advisors in the U.S. In 2008, H&R Block sold the unit to Ameriprise Financial for US$315 million.

RSM McGladrey Business Solutions was created in 1999 when H&R Block acquired the assets and business of McGladrey & Pullen, based in Bloomington, Minnesota. McGladrey had 100 offices in 25 states and offered accounting, consulting, tax services, and international business services to mid-sized companies. Its clients included business in the construction, health care and manufacturing industries. Through an alliance with McGladrey & Pullen and other accountancies, the Block subsidiary operated in 70 countries under the RSM International name. In 2011, H&R Block sold the unit to McGladrey & Pullen.

Maps H&R Block

Business areas

Retail tax services

In May 2007, the company said its total U.S. clients served during the 2007 tax season reached a record 19.9 million, up 3.8 percent from the previous year period. H&R Block employs 90,000 tax preparers. The company reported that in 2007, its tax clients obtained US$30 billion in tax refunds, credits and other government benefits. The company said it filed US$10 billion worth of Earned Income Tax Credits for its low-income clients.

Digital tax services

H&R Block competes for a share of the digital market with its online tax programs and software. Block's other digital offerings include H&R Block Best of Both, where clients enter their information and do their returns online and a Block tax professional reviews, edits, signs and e-files the return.

H&R Block Bank

The H&R Block Bank was chartered in 2006 and offers low-cost services to its low- to moderate-income customers. Block has said that more than one-third of its clients do not have bank accounts, and must pay high check-cashing fees for their paychecks and tax refund checks. Bank customers can establish FDIC-insured accounts with their tax refund money and then access those funds with pre-paid "Emerald" MasterCards through a nationwide network of ATMs. The accounts also allow direct payroll deposits via ACH and clients can get traditional services, such as lines of credit and individual retirement accounts.

In September 2015, H&R Block sold H&R Block Bank to BofI Holding Inc and reached an agreement for BofI to serve as the bank for H&R Block-branded financial services products including the Emerald MasterCard, Refund Anticipation Checks, and Emerald Advance lines of credit.

src: i.ytimg.com

Block Advisors

In January 2016, H&R Block launched Block Advisors, a service that provides year-round consumer tax preparation. The company says they have opened 350 Block Advisor offices.

src: ae01.alicdn.com

Controversies

H&R Block's own taxes

In August 2005, H&R Block announced that it had overstated its earnings for 2003 and 2004 by $91.1 million. The company stated that it had "insufficient resources" to identify and report complex transactions in its corporate tax accounting. On February 23, 2006, the company said in its quarterly results that it had miscalculated its own state income taxes for 2005 and 2004, and that it owed an additional $32 million in back taxes. That mistake, plus Block's lower-than-expected earnings for the quarter, caused its stock price to drop by 8.5 percent in one day. On April 30, 2008, the company's liability recorded for "uncertain tax positions" totaled $137.6 million (excluding related interest and penalties). According to H&R Block, "This liability represents an estimate of tax positions we have taken in our tax returns that may ultimately not be sustained upon examination by the tax authorities." Estimated gross interest and penalties relating to these potential assessments totaled an additional $47.5 million.

Refund anticipation loans

On Feb. 15, 2006, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer sued H&R Block, alleging the company's refund anticipation loan (RAL) business violated state and federal laws in its marketing and providing of high-cost RALs mainly to low-income clients. Block responded that it "believes the refund lending program is both fair and legal, and will vigorously defend against the complaint". On January 2, 2009, California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. reached a $4.85 million settlement with H&R Block, which prohibits the company from deceptively marketing high-cost refund anticipation loans as early "tax refunds". Consumers received up to $2.45 million in restitution if they purchased a "refund anticipation loan" or a "refund anticipation check" through H&R Block between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2008. In addition, H&R Block agreed to pay $500,000 in penalties and $1.9 million in fees and costs. In 2011, H&R Block ceased offering RALs altogether, a move praised by consumer rights activists.

Express IRA

On March 16, 2006, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued H&R Block, accusing the company of deceptive marketing of its Express IRA retirement accounts. The lawsuit alleged the company assessed fees, including set-up fees, annual fees, and account closing fees that, for 85% of account holders, resulted in the account losing money. However, in July 2007, a New York state judge dismissed much of the lawsuit. Justice Karla Moskowitz of the State Supreme Court excused Block and five of its units from the lawsuit. She let stand the portion of the complaint concerning another unit, H&R Block Financial Advisers, but dismissed allegations of common law fraud. At the time of the ruling, Block said it believed the remaining assertions lacked merit and that it would appeal. On January 6, 2009, a New York state appeals court overruled trial justice Karla Moskowitz's July 2007 ruling and reinstated the lawsuit against H&R Block Inc that accused the company of fraudulently marketing Express IRA retirement accounts to hundreds of thousands of lower-income clients nationwide. The matter was settled in 2009.

Social Security numbers

In December 2005, H&R Block sent its customers free copies of its TaxCut software, and the mailing labels on the packages mistakenly included the recipients' Social Security numbers. Block said it sent the promotional mailing to former customers and people whose names were taken from purchased lists. The company said it is legally required to hold on to customers' tax information, including Social Security numbers, for three years. Block said no customer data has been lost or stolen as a result of the mistake, and that less than 3 percent of the mailings were involved.

Unpaid Employees

As of January 25, 2018 H&R Block has employees in Texas that have not been paid for work from November 2017.

src: stat.homeshop18.com

References

src: ae01.alicdn.com

External links

• H&R Block
• H&R Block Canada
• H&R Block India
• H&R Block Australia
• Block Advisors

Source of article : Wikipedia

Replacement window

src: i.ytimg.com

A replacement window is a window that is installed in an existing window opening as replacement of the existing window. Old weather beaten windows deteriorate and become loose and drafty. They need replacement not only to improve the appearance of the house but also to take advantage of modern energy efficient windows that bring about an overall improvement of the ambiance of the house at low recurring cost of heating and cooling.

Video Replacement window

Installation

Replacement windows are designed for a variety of installation situations and techniques.

In a full-frame installation, trim around the old window (interior and/or exterior) is removed and the old window frame is removed completely. The new replacement window is secured to the studs surrounding the window opening, and the trim is replaced.

Insert installations are sometimes used when replacing older wood windows with frames that are in good condition. In this case, the new replacement window is installed within the existing frame. This installation technique is simpler than a full-frame installation, but decreases the size of the window opening due to the nesting of the frames.

Another technique involves replacing the window sashes only, and re-using the existing frame.

New-construction windows of recent vintage typically have a "nailing fin" along the outer frame. This fin provides a surface so that the window can be nailed in from the outside of the home before the application of flashing, siding or brick and stone veneers. Most replacement windows are manufactured without this fin so that they can be installed with minimal disruption to the existing trim, siding, sheetrock or exterior veneer.

Maps Replacement window

Materials

Replacement windows are available in several materials including wood, fiberglass, aluminum-clad wood, vinyl-clad wood, vinyl, glass blocks and other composite materials. The most common materials for new windows are PVC-u and wood.[1]

src: i.ytimg.com

Benefits of replacement windows

Replacement windows can increase resale value and energy efficiency. Several types of typical windows are listed and discussed here.

Wood windows were used from the early 1900s to the present but became less of a mainstay of the industry in the 1960s. They are prevalent in the Northern United States. Steel and aluminum casements and Steel Vertical Operators were used from the 1950s through the 1960s. Aluminum windows were used in the 1960s through the present. Vinyl windows were established in the 1970s through the present. The last decade has also seen the admission of composite materials such as fiberglass and vinyl-wood-polymer type products.

Wood "drop-in" replacement windows and vinyl windows are designed to sit in place of the existing sashes and are constructed at 3 1/4" thickness in most cases. These type windows sit in the opening where the top and bottom sash originally moved in their respective wooden "tracks" The stop between the two sashes must also be removed in this type of refurbishment or retrofit installation. It requires minimal movement of existing trims both inside and out.

The alternative is to replace the entire wood window including jambs. This requires the reworking of interior and exterior wood trim to accommodate the size of the modern wood window. Modern wood windows are available in with 4 9/16" jambs as a standard feature but can be equipped with "jamb extensions" to extend to 5 1/4" or 6 9/16". This is to accommodate the wall thickness as needed.

Modern windows have two or more layers of glass. This is known as double glazing or triple glazing. An argon gas has is usually held between these additional layers of glass which helps to make the windows more energy efficient and keep our outside noises. Triple glazed windows are more energy efficient than double glazed windows, but with their additional weight, they are not always available to work with every size of window frame. In the United States, the Energy Code sets certain standards for performance of products installed in homes. These codes now require Low-E Glass in all residential homes.

Low-E is a film that is several layers of metal poured microscopically thin over the surface of newly poured glass. This heat reflective film is transparent but can be darker or lighter depending on the type and manufacturer. This data is rated in Visible Light Transmission. Darker glass with heavier Low-E will have less VT. The NFRC rates most energy star rated window manufacturers.

Two main types of Low-Emissivity Glass are pyrolytic, or "hard coat", and spectrally selective, or "soft coat".

Pyrolitic glass is made mostly of tin oxides and is applied to "hot" float plate glass as it is cooling. Pyrolytic Low-e glass is extremely durable and gives glazing a lower u-value, or heat loss rating, than clear glass, making it ideal for northern Energy Star climate zones.

Spectrally selective glass is made of various metal oxides, mostly silver, and is applied to cool glass in an electro-magnetic vacuum sputter chamber. Spectrally selective low emissivity glass is very sensitive to oxygen and therefore has to be sealed in an insulated glass unit before it begins to oxidize. It scratches easily and is sensitive to pH, making it difficult to manufacture. It produces low u-values, both winter and night, and low summer daytime solar heat gain ratings, making it a preferred coating in mixed climate zones.

Introduced in the mid 2000's, newer "triple silver" low-e, also called High Performance low-e, are testing for even lower SHGC ratings, making the windows suitable for even the hottest southern climate (mostly cooling) zones. Also notable are new interior surface low-e coatings that provide very low u-values that are comparable to triple pane windows, often in the low 20's. Combining these two low-emissivity coatings can make a dual pane window exceed every Energy Star climate zone in the US.

Other options include triple-glazing (a third pane of glass), higher quality spacers between the panes, which reduce the failure rate and conduction that allows seal failure. This creates "fogging" or condensation to form between the panes. Modern windows also have optional gases between the panes that have higher insulative qualities than air, such as argon or krypton gases.

"Double-hung" windows are the most common traditional window. They have an upper sash and a lower sash, both of which slide up and down in the window opening. "Single-hung" windows operate the same as "double-hung" windows, but their upper sash is fixed in place. By virtue of being stationary and permanently secured, single-hungs are often more energy efficient that double-hung windows depending on the type and style.

Most vertical operators (single- and double-hungs) now feature "tilt-in" sashes for cleaning of the exterior surfaces. The industry moved towards this approach for service and replacement reasons as well as accessibility to the exterior from the inside of the home.

Casement windows are hinged on one side and are typically operated using an interior hand crank. Awning and Basement windows hinge on top and bottom respectively.

Sliding windows, or "sliders", are sometimes used in openings that are wider than they are tall.

Non-operable or "fixed" windows also called "picture windows" are common in larger openings.

Retrofit replacement windows are custom manufactured to fit finished openings in sizes down to 1/8" or 1/4" in most cases. Builders-grade windows are constructed in specific sizes depending on the manufacturer. Wood windows also have "Standard Sizes" that determine the installation and application. Custom-sized wood windows are a rarity but are the most expensive of modern window products.

In 2009, the United States Federal Government passed a stimulus package allowing a 30% tax credit, with a $1500 cap, on purchases up to $5000 for qualifying energy saving products purchased in 2009 and 2010. This includes insulation, radiant barrier, air conditioning upgrades and most energy-efficient replacement windows and doors.

There are also additional programs through state governments and utility companies that offer low-interest loans and grants to replace your windows with energy-efficient ones.

src: d1d81vmw1yvc7o.cloudfront.net

Trade-offs of replacement windows

Due to the heavier weight and increased thickness of insulated glass, and the weakness of vinyl extrusions, window frames in replacement windows may be thicker in visual profile, thereby reducing glass area even in full-frame and sash replacement-only installations. This is not universally the case. Replacement window operation may not be identical to the windows that are replaced. For example, a typical existing older double hung window sash is capable of being opened nearly to the top of the window. Newer replacement window sashes typically can only be opened to approximately 4" from the top of the window - providing less open window area. On smaller bedroom windows that are required by building codes to allow egress in the event of a fire, the smaller opening area may not meet the code required minimum dimensions. And removing the sash, although it may be easy to do, is not allowed as a solution to this problem since the building codes specifically requires the window to be opened in the normal manner.

src: static1.squarespace.com

References

Source of article : Wikipedia

Skin care

src: d1o50x50snmhul.cloudfront.net

Skin care is the range of practices that support skin integrity, enhance its appearance and relieve skin conditions. They can include nutrition, avoidance of excessive sun exposure and appropriate use of emollients. Practices that enhance appearance include the use of cosmetics, botulinum, exfoliation, fillers, laser resurfacing, microdermabrasion, peels, retinol therapy. Skin care is a routine daily procedure in many settings, such as skin that is either too dry or too moist, and prevention of dermatitis and prevention of skin injuries.

Skin care is a part of the treatment of wound healing, radiation therapy and some medications.

Video Skin care

Background

Skin care is at the interface of cosmetics, and dermatology, a traditional medical discipline; there is some overlap with each of these topics.

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act defines cosmetics as products intended to cleanse or beautify (for instance, shampoos and lipstick). A separate category exists for medications, which are intended to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent disease, or to affect the structure or function of the body (for instance, sunscreens and acne creams), although some products, such as moisturizing sunscreens and anti-dandruff shampoos, are regulated within both categories.

Skin care differs from dermatology, as traditionally practiced, by its additional but less medical scope and by its inclusion of non-physician professionals, such as estheticians and wound care nursing staff. Skin care includes modifications of individual behavior and of environmental and working conditions. Nevertheless, dermatology has co-opted some aspects of skin care, particularly in the U.S., and to a significantly lesser extent elsewhere, such as the U.K. Add from

Maps Skin care

Neonate

Guidelines for neonatal skin care have been developed. Nevertheless, the pediatric and dermatologic communities have not reached consensus on best cleansing practices, as good quality scientific evidence is scarce. Immersion in water seems superior to washing alone, and use of synthetic detergents or mild liquid baby cleansers seems comparable or superior to water alone. Add from

src: thozmd.com

Sunscreen

Sun protection is an important aspect of skin care. Though the sun is beneficial in order for the human body to get its daily dose of vitamin D, unprotected excessive sunlight can cause extreme damage to the skin. Ultraviolet (UVA and UVB) radiation in the sun's rays can cause sunburn in varying degrees, early ageing and increased risk of skin cancer. UV exposure can cause patches of uneven skin tone and dry out the skin.

This can reduce the skin's elasticity and encourage sagging and wrinkle formation. Sunscreen can protect the skin from sun damage; sunscreen should be applied at least 20 minutes before exposure, and should be re-applied every four hours. Sunscreen should be applied to all areas of the skin that will be exposed to sunlight, and at least a tablespoon (25 ml) should be applied to each limb, the face, chest, and back, to ensure thorough coverage. Many tinted moisturizers, foundations and primers now contain some form of SPF.

Sunscreens may come in the form of creams, gels or lotions; their SPF number indicates their effectiveness in protecting the skin from the sun's radiation. There are sunscreens available to suit every skin type; in particular, those with oily skin should choose non-comedogenic sunscreens; those with dry skins should choose sunscreens with moisturizers to help keep skin hydrated, and those with sensitive skin should choose unscented, hypoallergenic sunscreen and spot-test in an inconspicuous place (such as the inside of the elbow or behind the ear) to ensure that it does not irritate the skin.

src: completewellbeing.com

Elderly

Skin ageing is associated with increased vulnerability. Skin problems including pruritus are common in the elderly but are often inadequately addressed. A literature review of studies that assessed maintenance of skin integrity in the elderly found most to be low levels of evidence but the review concluded that skin-cleansing with synthetic detergents or amphoteric surfactants induced less skin dryness than using soap and water. Moisturizers with humectants helped with skin dryness, and skin barrier occlusives reduced skin injuries.

src: skincaare.com

Acne

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, between 40 and 50 million Americans suffer from acne each year. While many associate acne with adolescence, acne can occur at any age. Causes of acne can include heredity/genetics, hormones, menstruation, food, and emotional stress.

There are a few ways to help reduce the effects of acne. Use a gentle exfoliating product, such as a scrub that contains sea salt or jojoba beads instead of one that uses sharp seeds, granules, or husks. Exfoliation should only be performed based on skin type. Those with inflammatory acne should exfoliate with caution as the procedure may make conditions worse and consult a Dermatologist before treatment. Some anti-acne creams contain drying agents such as benzoyl peroxide ( in concentrations of 2.5 - 10% ), which can help ease acne in certain cases -- particularly among teenagers. However, many adults can't tolerate the intense drying effects and might experience cracked skin and red blemishes the longer they use the product. Users often choose to discontinue using the product if skin is experiencing extreme side effects imposed by the product.

src: i.ytimg.com

Pressure sore

Pressure sores are injuries to skin and underlying tissue as a result of prolonged pressure on the skin. A known example of pressure sore is bedsore called pressure ulcer.

src: www.lorealparisusa.com

Stoma

Add from

src: az616578.vo.msecnd.net

Wound healing

Wound healing is a complex and fragile process in which the skin repairs itself after injury. It is susceptible to interruption or failure that creates non-healing chronic wounds.

src: cosmotekcollege.com

Nutrition

Add from

• 2001 American Society for Clinical Nutrition Nutritional skin care: health effects of micronutrients and fatty acids Esther Boelsma, Henk FJ Hendriks, and Len Roza.

src: www.rheologylab.com

Radiation

Radiation induces skin reactions in the treated area, particularly in the axilla, head and neck, perineum and skin fold regions. Formulations with moisturising, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial and wound healing properties are often used, but no preferred approach or individual product has been identified as best practice. Soft silicone dressings that act as barriers to friction may be helpful. In breast cancer, calendula cream may reduce the severity of radiation effects on the dark spot corrector. Deodorant use after completing radiation treatment has been controversial but is now recommended for practice. Add from

src: www.supplierbin.com

EGFR

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors are medications used in cancer treatment. These medications commonly cause skin and nail problems, including rashes, dry skin and paronychia. Preventive intensive moisturising with emollient ointments several times, avoidance of water-based creams and water soaks (although in certain circumstances white vinegar or potassium permanganate soaks may help), protection the skin from excessive exposure to sunshine, and soap substitutes which are less dehydrating for the skin than normal soaps, as well as shampoos that reduce the risk of scalp folliculitis, are recommended. Treatment measures with topical antibiotic medication can be helpful.

src: www.sarcoma.net

Related products

Cosmeceuticals are topically-applied, combination products that bring together cosmetics and "biologically active ingredients". Products which are similar in perceived benefits but ingested orally are known as nutricosmetics. According to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act "does not recognize any such category as "cosmeceuticals." A product can be a drug, a cosmetic, or a combination of both, but the term "cosmeceutical" has no meaning under the law". Drugs are subject to an intensive review and approval process by FDA. Cosmetics, and these related products, although regulated, are not approved by FDA prior to sale.

src: netmaddy.com

Procedures

Skin care procedures include use of botulinum; exfoliation; fillers; laser medicine in cosmetic resurfacing, hair removal, vitiligo, port-wine stain and tattoo removal; photodynamic therapy; microdermabrasion; peels; retinol therapy.

src: cdn.vox-cdn.com

References

Source of article : Wikipedia

Molding (decorative)

src: surripui.net

Moulding (also spelled molding in the United States though usually not within the industry), also known as coving (United Kingdom, Australia), is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster, but may be of plastic or reformed wood. In classical architecture and sculpture, the molding is often carved in marble or other stones.

A "plain" moulding has right-angled upper and lower edges. A "sprung" moulding has upper and lower edges that bevel towards its rear, allowing mounting between two non-parallel planes (such as a wall and a ceiling), with an open space behind.

Video Molding (decorative)

Types

Decorative moldings have been made of wood, stone and cement. Recently moldings have been made of extruded PVC and Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) as a core with a cement-based protective coating. Synthetic moldings have environmental, health and safety concerns that were investigated by Doroudiani et al.

Common moldings include:

• Astragal -- Semi-circular molding attached to one of a pair of doors to cover the gap where they meet.
• Baguette -- Thin, half-round molding, smaller than an astragal, sometimes carved, and enriched with foliages, pearls, ribbands, laurels, etc. When enriched with ornaments, it was also called chapelet.
• Bandelet -- Any little band or flat molding, which crowns a Doric architrave. It is also called a tenia (from Greek ?????? an article of clothing in the form of a ribbon.
• Baseboard, "base molding" or "skirting board" -- Used to conceal the junction of an interior wall and floor, to protect the wall from impacts and to add decorative features. A "speed base" makes use of a base "cap molding" set on top of a plain 1" thick board, however there are hundreds of baseboard profiles.
• Baton -- See Torus
• Batten or board and batten -- Symmetrical molding that is placed across a joint where two parallel panels or boards meet
• Bead molding -- Narrow, half-round convex molding, when repeated forms reeding
• Beading or bead -- Molding in the form of a row of half spherical beads, larger than pearling
  • Other forms: Bead and leaf, bead and reel, bead and spindle
• Beak -- Small fillet molding left on the edge of a larmier, which forms a canal, and makes a kind of pendant. See also: chin-beak
• Bed molding -- Narrow molding used at the junction of a wall and ceiling. Bed moldings can be either sprung or plain.
• Bolection -- Raised molding projecting proud of a face frame at the intersection of the different levels between the frame and an inset panel on a door or wood panel. It will sometimes have a rabbet on its underside the depth of the lower level so it can lay flat over both. It can leave an inset panel free to expand or contract with temperature and humidity.
• Cable molding or ropework -- Convex molding carved in imitation of a twisted rope or cord, and used for decorative moldings of the Romanesque style in England, France and Spain and adapted for 18th-century silver and furniture design (Thomas Sheraton)
• Cabled fluting or cable -- Convex circular molding sunk in the concave fluting of a classic column, and rising about one-third of the height of the shaft
• Casing -- Finish trim around the sides of a door or window opening covering the gap between finished wall and the jam or frame it is attached to.
• Cartouche (in French) escutcheon -- Framed panel in the form of a scroll with an inscribed centre, or surrounded by compound moldings decorated with floral motifs
• Cavetto -- (in Italian) cavare("to hollow"): Concave, quarter-round molding sometimes employed in the place of the cymatium of a cornice, as in the Doric order of the Theatre of Marcellus. It forms the crowning feature of the Egyptian temples, and took the place of the cymatium in many of the Etruscan temples.
• Chair rail -- Horizontal molding placed part way up a wall to protect the surface from chair-backs, and used simply as decoration
• Chamfer -- Beveled edge connecting two adjacent surfaces
• Chin-beak -- Concave quarter-round molding, rare in ancient buildings, more common today.
• Corner guard -- Used to protect the edge of the wall at an outside corner, or to cover a joint on an inside corner.
• Cove molding or Coving -- Concave-profile molding that is used at the junction of an interior wall and ceiling
• Crown molding -- Wide, sprung molding that is used at the junction of an interior wall and ceiling. General term for any molding at the top or "crowning" an architectural element.
• Cyma -- Molding of double curvature, combining the convex ovolo and concave cavetto. When the concave part is uppermost, it is called a cyma recta but if the convex portion is at the top, it is called a Cyma reversa -- Crowning molding at the entablature is of the cyma form, it is called a cymatium.
• Dentils -- Small blocks spaced evenly along the bottom edge of the cornice
• Drip cap -- Moulding placed over a door or window opening to prevent water from flowing under the siding or across the glass
• Echinus -- Similar to the ovolo molding and found beneath the abacus of the Doric capital or decorated with the egg-and-dart pattern below the Ionic capital
• Egg-and-dart -- egg shapes alternating with V-shapes; one of the most widely used classical moldings.
  • Also: Egg and tongue, egg and anchor, egg and star
• Fillet -- Small, flat band separating two surfaces, or between the flutes of a column
• Fluting -- Vertical, half-round grooves cut into the surface of a column in regular intervals, each separated by a flat astragal. This ornament was used for all but the Tuscan order
• Godroon or Gadroon -- Ornamental band with the appearance of beading or reeding, especially frequent in silverwork and molding. It comes from the Latin word Guttus, meaning flask. It is said to be derived from raised work on linen, applied in France to varieties of the, bead and reel, in which the bead is often carved with ornament. In England the term is constantly used by auctioneers to describe the raised convex decorations under the bowl of stone or terracotta vases. The godroons radiate from the vertical support of the vase and rise halfway up the bowl.
  • Also: Gadrooning, lobed decoration, (k)nukked decoration, thumb molding
• Guilloché -- Interlocking curved bands in a repeating pattern often forming circles enriched with rosettes and found in Assyrian ornament, classical and Renaissance architecture.
• Keel molding -- Sharp-edged moulding resembling a cross-section of a ship's keel, common in the Early English and Decorated styles.
• Muntin - Narrow strip of wood or metal separating and holding panes of glass in a window.
• Ovolo -- Simple, convex quarter-round molding that can also be enriched with the egg-and-dart or other pattern
• Neck molding
• Picture rail -- Functional molding installed 7-9 feet above the floor from which framed art is hung, common in commercial buildings and homes with plaster walls.
• Rosette -- Circular, floral decorative element found in Mesopotamian design and early Greek stele, common in revival styles of architecture since the Renaissance.
• Scotia -- Concave molding with a lower edge projecting beyond the top and so used at the base of columns as a transition between two torus moldings with different diameters
• Screen molding -- Small molding used to hide and reinforce where a screen is attached to its frame.
• Shoe molding, toe molding or quarter-round -- Small flexible moulding used at the junction of a baseboard and floor as a stylistic element or to cover any gap between two.
• Strapwork - Imitates thick lengths of leather straps applied to a surface to produce pattern of ribs in connected circles, squares, scrolls, lozenges etc. Popular in England in 16th & 17th. centuries, used in plaster on ceilings, also sculpted in stone on exterior of buildings, e.g. around entrance doors. Also carved in wood, and used for topiary designs for parterres.
• Torus -- Convex, semi-circular molding, larger than an astragal, often at the base of a column, which may be enriched with leaves or plaiting.
• Trim molding -- General term used for moldings used to create added detail or cover up gaps, including corner moldings, cove moldings, rope moldings, quarter rounds, and accent moldings.

Maps Molding (decorative)

Use

At their simplest, moldings hide and help weather seal natural joints produced in the framing process of building a structure. As decorative elements they are a means of applying light- and dark-shaded stripes to a structural object without having to change the material or apply pigments. Depending on their function they may be primarily a means of hiding or weather-sealing a joint, purely decorative, or some combination of the three.

As decorative elements the contrast of dark and light areas gives definition to the object. Imagine the vertical surface of a wall lit by sunlight at an angle of about 45 degrees above the wall. Adding a small overhanging horizontal molding to the surface of the wall will introduce a dark horizontal shadow below the molding, called a fillet molding. Adding a vertical fillet to a horizontal surface will create a light vertical shadow. Graded shadows are possible by using moldings in different shapes: the concave cavetto molding produces a horizontal shadow that is darker at the top and lighter at the bottom; an ovolo (convex) molding makes a shadow that is lighter at the top and darker at the bottom. Other varieties of concave molding are the scotia and congé and other convex moldings the echinus, the torus and the astragal.

Placing an ovolo directly above a cavetto forms a smooth s-shaped curve with vertical ends that is called an ogee or cyma reversa molding. Its shadow appears as a band light at the top and bottom but dark in the interior. Similarly, a cavetto above an ovolo forms an s with horizontal ends, called a cyma or cyma recta. Its shadow shows two dark bands with a light interior.

Together the basic elements and their variants form a decorative vocabulary that can be assembled and rearranged in endless combinations. This vocabulary is at the core of both classical architecture and Gothic architecture.

src: vesania-store.com

See also

• Ancient Greek architecture
• Ancient Roman architecture
• Architrave
• Cornice
• Entablature
• Glossary of architecture
• Moulding plane
• Order of moldings
• Renaissance architecture

src: www.kylebalda.com

References

src: www.acolorfulworld.com

Further reading

• Theory of Mouldings (Classical America Series in Art and Architecture); C Howard Walker (Author) ; Richard Sammons (Foreword); W. W. Norton & Co. (July 31, 2007); ISBN 0-393-73233-9

Source of article : Wikipedia

H-index

src: s3.amazonaws.com

The h-index is an author-level metric that attempts to measure both the productivity and citation impact of the publications of a scientist or scholar. The index is based on the set of the scientist's most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other publications. The index can also be applied to the productivity and impact of a scholarly journal as well as a group of scientists, such as a department or university or country. The index was suggested in 2005 by Jorge E. Hirsch, a physicist at UCSD, as a tool for determining theoretical physicists' relative quality and is sometimes called the Hirsch index or Hirsch number.

Video H-index

Definition and purpose

The definition of the index is that a scholar with an index of h has published h papers each of which has been cited in other papers at least h times. Thus, the h-index reflects both the number of publications and the number of citations per publication. The index is designed to improve upon simpler measures such as the total number of citations or publications. The index works properly only for comparing scientists working in the same field; citation conventions differ widely among different fields.

Maps H-index

Calculation

Formally, if f is the function that corresponds to the number of citations for each publication, we compute the h index as follows. First we order the values of f from the largest to the lowest value. Then, we look for the last position in which f is greater than or equal to the position (we call h this position). For example, if we have a researcher with 5 publications A, B, C, D, and E with 10, 8, 5, 4, and 3 citations, respectively, the h index is equal to 4 because the 4th publication has 4 citations and the 5th has only 3. In contrast, if the same publications have 25, 8, 5, 3, and 3, then the index is 3 because the fourth paper has only 3 citations.

f(A)=10, f(B)=8, f(C)=5, f(D)=4, f(E)=3 -> h-index=4

f(A)=25, f(B)=8, f(C)=5, f(D)=3, f(E)=3 -> h-index=3

If we have the function f ordered in decreasing order from the largest value to the lowest one, we can compute the h index as follows:

h-index (f) = ${\displaystyle \max _{i}\min(f(i),i)}$

The Hirsch index is equivalent to the Eddington number, an earlier metric used for evaluating cyclists. The h-index serves as an alternative to more traditional journal impact factor metrics in the evaluation of the impact of the work of a particular researcher. Because only the most highly cited articles contribute to the h-index, its determination is a simpler process. Hirsch has demonstrated that h has high predictive value for whether a scientist has won honors like National Academy membership or the Nobel Prize. The h-index grows as citations accumulate and thus it depends on the "academic age" of a researcher.

src: dfzljdn9uc3pi.cloudfront.net

Input data

The h-index can be manually determined using citation databases or using automatic tools. Subscription-based databases such as Scopus and the Web of Knowledge provide automated calculators. Harzing's Publish or Perish program calculates the h-index based on Google Scholar entries. From July 2011 Google have provided an automatically-calculated h-index and i10-index within their own Google Scholar profile. In addition, specific databases, such as the INSPIRE-HEP database can automatically calculate the h-index for researchers working in high energy physics.

Each database is likely to produce a different h for the same scholar, because of different coverage. A detailed study showed that the Web of Knowledge has strong coverage of journal publications, but poor coverage of high impact conferences. Scopus has better coverage of conferences, but poor coverage of publications prior to 1996; Google Scholar has the best coverage of conferences and most journals (though not all), but like Scopus has limited coverage of pre-1990 publications. The exclusion of conference proceedings papers is a particular problem for scholars in computer science, where conference proceedings are considered an important part of the literature. Google Scholar has been criticized for producing "phantom citations," including gray literature in its citation counts, and failing to follow the rules of Boolean logic when combining search terms. For example, the Meho and Yang study found that Google Scholar identified 53% more citations than Web of Knowledge and Scopus combined, but noted that because most of the additional citations reported by Google Scholar were from low-impact journals or conference proceedings, they did not significantly alter the relative ranking of the individuals. It has been suggested that in order to deal with the sometimes wide variation in h for a single academic measured across the possible citation databases, one should assume false negatives in the databases are more problematic than false positives and take the maximum h measured for an academic.

src: i.ytimg.com

Comparing results across fields and career levels

Comparing results between individuals will have to take into account (a) career stage, (b) publication frequency in the field, and (c) citation frequency in the field. A person at a higher career stage will have published more and the publications will have had more time to accumulate citations. How many publications a person authors or co-authors per year (b) differs greatly between disciplines. Also, how many citations a publication attracts per year (c) differs, esp. in how fast the take-up is. Finally, even if the average is the same, the distribution of citations will be different, across individuals, publications, and time.

Hirsch suggested that, for physicists, a value for h of about 12 might be typical for advancement to tenure (associate professor) at major research universities. A value of about 18 could mean a full professorship, 15-20 could mean a fellowship in the American Physical Society, and 45 or higher could mean membership in the United States National Academy of Sciences.

For the most highly cited scientists in the period 1983-2002, Hirsch identified the top 10 in the life sciences (in order of decreasing h): Solomon H. Snyder, h = 191; David Baltimore, h = 160; Robert C. Gallo, h = 154; Pierre Chambon, h = 153; Bert Vogelstein, h = 151; Salvador Moncada, h = 143; Charles A. Dinarello, h = 138; Tadamitsu Kishimoto, h = 134; Ronald M. Evans, h = 127; and Axel Ullrich, h = 120. Among 36 new inductees in the National Academy of Sciences in biological and biomedical sciences in 2005, the median h-index was 57. However, he points out that values of h will vary between different fields.

Among the 22 scientific disciplines listed in the Thomson Reuters Essential Science Indicators Citation Thresholds, physics has the second most citations after space science. During the period January 1, 2000 - February 28, 2010, a physicist had to receive 2073 citations to be among the most cited 1% of physicists in the world. The threshold for space science is the highest (2236 citations), and physics is followed by clinical medicine (1390) and molecular biology & genetics (1229). Most disciplines, such as environment/ecology (390), have fewer scientists, fewer papers, and fewer citations. Therefore, these disciplines have lower citation thresholds in the Essential Science Indicators, with the lowest citation thresholds observed in social sciences (154), computer science (149), and multidisciplinary sciences (147).

Numbers are very different in other disciplines: The Impact of the Social Sciences team at London School of Economics found that social scientists in the United Kingdom had lower average h-indices. The h-indices for ("full") professors, based on Google Scholar data ranged from 2.8 (in law), through 3.4 (in political science), 3.7 (in sociology), 6.5 (in geography) and 7.6 (in economics). On average across the disciplines, a professor in the social sciences had an h-index about twice that of a lecturer or a senior lecturer, though the difference was the smallest in geography.

Little systematic investigation has been made on how academic recognition correlates with h-index over different institutions, nations and fields of study - especially the arts and humanities.

src: meaningseeds.files.wordpress.com

Advantages

Hirsch intended the h-index to address the main disadvantages of other bibliometric indicators, such as total number of papers or total number of citations. Total number of papers does not account for the quality of scientific publications, while total number of citations can be disproportionately affected by participation in a single publication of major influence (for instance, methodological papers proposing successful new techniques, methods or approximations, which can generate a large number of citations), or having many publications with few citations each. The h-index is intended to measure simultaneously the quality and quantity of scientific output.

src: i.ytimg.com

Criticism

There are a number of situations in which h may provide misleading information about a scientist's output: Most of these however are not exclusive to the h-index.

• The h-index does not account for the typical number of citations in different fields. It has been stated that citation behavior in general is affected by field-dependent factors, which may invalidate comparisons not only across disciplines but even within different fields of research of one discipline.
• The h-index discards the information contained in author placement in the authors' list, which in some scientific fields is significant.
• The h-index has been found in one study to have slightly less predictive accuracy and precision than the simpler measure of mean citations per paper. However, this finding was contradicted by another study by Hirsch.
• The h-index is a natural number that reduces its discriminatory power. Ruane and Tol therefore propose a rational h-index that interpolates between h and h + 1.
• The h-index can be manipulated through self-citations, and if based on Google Scholar output, then even computer-generated documents can be used for that purpose, e.g. using SCIgen.
• The h-index does not provide a significantly more accurate measure of impact than the total number of citations for a given scholar. In particular, by modeling the distribution of citations among papers as a random integer partition and the h-index as the Durfee square of the partition, Yong arrived at the formula ${\displaystyle h\approx 0.54{\sqrt {N}}}$, where N is the total number of citations, which, for mathematics members of the National Academy of Sciences, turns out to provide an accurate (with errors typically within 10-20 percent) approximation of h-index in most cases.

src: wildlifesnpits.files.wordpress.com

Alternatives and modifications

Various proposals to modify the h-index in order to emphasize different features have been made. As the variants have proliferated, comparative studies have become possible showing that most proposals are highly correlated with the original h-index, although alternative indexes may be important to decide between comparable CVs, as often the case in evaluation processes.

• An individual h-index normalized by the number of author has been proposed: ${\displaystyle h_{I}=h^{2}/N_{a}^{(T)}}$, with ${\displaystyle N_{a}^{(T)}}$ being the number of authors considered in the ${\displaystyle h}$ papers. It was found that the distribution of the h-index, although it depends on the field, can be normalized by a simple rescaling factor. For example, assuming as standard the hs for biology, the distribution of h for mathematics collapse with it if this h is multiplied by three, that is, a mathematician with h = 3 is equivalent to a biologist with h = 9. This method has not been readily adopted, perhaps because of its complexity. It might be simpler to divide citation counts by the number of authors before ordering the papers and obtaining the h-index, as originally suggested by Hirsch.
• The m-index is defined as h/n, where n is the number of years since the first published paper of the scientist; also called m-quotient.
• There are a number of models proposed to incorporate the relative contribution of each author to a paper, for instance by accounting for the rank in the sequence of authors.
• A generalization of the h-index and some other indices that gives additional information about the shape of the author's citation function (heavy-tailed, flat/peaked, etc.) has been proposed.
• A successive Hirsch-type-index for institutions has also been devised. A scientific institution has a successive Hirsch-type-index of i when at least i researchers from that institution have an h-index of at least i.
• Three additional metrics have been proposed: h² lower, h² center, and h² upper, to give a more accurate representation of the distribution shape. The three h² metrics measure the relative area within a scientist's citation distribution in the low impact area, h² lower, the area captured by the h-index, h² center, and the area from publications with the highest visibility, h² upper. Scientists with high h² upper percentages are perfectionists, whereas scientists with high h² lower percentages are mass producers. As these metrics are percentages, they are intended to give a qualitative description to supplement the quantitative h-index.
• The g-index can be seen as the h-index for an averaged citations count.
• It has been argued that "For an individual researcher, a measure such as Erd?s number captures the structural properties of network whereas the h-index captures the citation impact of the publications. One can be easily convinced that ranking in coauthorship networks should take into account both measures to generate a realistic and acceptable ranking." Several author ranking systems such as eigenfactor (based on eigenvector centrality) have been proposed already, for instance the Phys Author Rank Algorithm.
• The c-index accounts not only for the citations but for the quality of the citations in terms of the collaboration distance between citing and cited authors. A scientist has c-index n if n of [his/her] N citations are from authors which are at collaboration distance at least n, and the other (N - n) citations are from authors which are at collaboration distance at most n.
• An s-index, accounting for the non-entropic distribution of citations, has been proposed and it has been shown to be in a very good correlation with h.
• The e-index, the square root of surplus citations for the h-set beyond h², complements the h-index for ignored citations, and therefore is especially useful for highly cited scientists and for comparing those with the same h-index (iso-h-index group).
• Because the h-index was never meant to measure future publication success, recently, a group of researchers has investigated the features that are most predictive of future h-index. It is possible to try the predictions using an online tool. However, later work has shown that since h-index is a cumulative measure, it contains intrinsic auto-correlation that led to significant overestimation of its predictability. Thus, the true predictability of future h-index is much lower compared to what has been claimed before.
• The h-index has been applied to Internet Media, such as YouTube channels. The h-index is defined as the number of videos with >= h × 10⁵ views. When compared with a video creator's total view count, the h-index and g-index better capture both productivity and impact in a single metric.
• The i10-index indicates the number of academic publications an author has written that have at least ten citations from others. It was introduced in July 2011 by Google as part of their work on Google Scholar.
• The h-index has been shown to have a strong discipline bias. However, a simple normalization ${\displaystyle h/\langle h\rangle _{d}}$ by the average h of scholars in a discipline d is an effective way to mitigate this bias, obtaining a universal impact metric that allows comparison of scholars across different disciplines. Of course this method does not deal with academic age bias.
• The h-index can be timed to analyze its evolution during one's career, employing different time windows.
• The o-index corresponds to the geometric mean of the h-index and the most cited paper of a researcher.

src: s3.amazonaws.com

See also

• Bibliometrics
• Comparison of research networking tools and research profiling systems

src: blog.scopus.com

References

src: i.ytimg.com

Further reading

• Alonso, S.; Cabrerizo, F. J.; Herrera-Viedma, E.; Herrera, F. (2009). "h-index: A Review Focused in its Variants, Computation and Standardization for Different Scientific Fields". Journal of Informetrics. 3 (4): 273-89. doi:10.1016/j.joi.2009.04.001. 
• Ball, Philip (2005). "Index aims for fair ranking of scientists". Nature. 436 (7053): 900. Bibcode:2005Natur.436..900B. doi:10.1038/436900a. PMID 16107806. 
• Iglesias, Juan E.; Pecharromán, Carlos. "Scaling the h-index for different scientific ISI fields" (PDF). 
• Kelly, C. D.; Jennions, M. D. (2006). "The h index and career assessment by numbers". Trends Ecol. Evol. 21 (4): 167-70. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2006.01.005. PMID 16701079. 
• Lehmann, S.; Jackson, A. D.; Lautrup, B. E. (2006). "Measures for measures". Nature. 444 (7122): 1003-04. Bibcode:2006Natur.444.1003L. doi:10.1038/4441003a. PMID 17183295. 
• Panaretos, J.; Malesios, C. (2009). "Assessing Scientific Research Performance and Impact with Single Indices". Scientometrics. 81 (3): 635-70. doi:10.1007/s11192-008-2174-9. 
• Petersen, A. M.; Stanley, H. Eugene; Succi, Sauro (2011). "Statistical Regularities in the Rank-Citation Profile of Scientists". Nature Scientific Reports. 181: 1-7. arXiv:1103.2719 . Bibcode:2011NatSR...1E.181P. doi:10.1038/srep00181. 
• Sidiropoulos, Antonis; Katsaros, Dimitrios; Manolopoulos, Yannis (2007). "Generalized Hirsch h-index for disclosing latent facts in citation networks". Scientometrics. 72 (2): 253-80. doi:10.1007/s11192-007-1722-z. 
• Soler, José M. (2007). "A rational indicator of scientific creativity". Journal of Informetrics. 1 (2): 123-30. doi:10.1016/j.joi.2006.10.004. 
• Symonds, M. R.; et al. (2006). Tregenza, Tom, ed. "Gender differences in publication output: towards an unbiased metric of research performance". PLoS ONE. 1 (1): e127. Bibcode:2006PLoSO...1..127S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000127. PMC 1762413 . PMID 17205131. 
• Taber, Douglass F. (2005). "Quantifying Publication Impact". Science. 309 (5744): 2166a. doi:10.1126/science.309.5744.2166a. PMID 16195445. 
• Woeginger, Gerhard j. (2008). "An axiomatic characterization of the Hirsch-index". Mathematical Social Sciences. 56 (2): 224-32. doi:10.1016/j.mathsocsci.2008.03.001. 

src: i.ytimg.com

External links

• Google Scholar Metrics
• H-index for economists
• H-index for computer science researchers
• H-index for astronomers

Source of article : Wikipedia

H-index

src: s3.amazonaws.com

The h-index is an author-level metric that attempts to measure both the productivity and citation impact of the publications of a scientist or scholar. The index is based on the set of the scientist's most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other publications. The index can also be applied to the productivity and impact of a scholarly journal as well as a group of scientists, such as a department or university or country. The index was suggested in 2005 by Jorge E. Hirsch, a physicist at UCSD, as a tool for determining theoretical physicists' relative quality and is sometimes called the Hirsch index or Hirsch number.

Video H-index

Definition and purpose

The definition of the index is that a scholar with an index of h has published h papers each of which has been cited in other papers at least h times. Thus, the h-index reflects both the number of publications and the number of citations per publication. The index is designed to improve upon simpler measures such as the total number of citations or publications. The index works properly only for comparing scientists working in the same field; citation conventions differ widely among different fields.

Maps H-index

Calculation

Formally, if f is the function that corresponds to the number of citations for each publication, we compute the h index as follows. First we order the values of f from the largest to the lowest value. Then, we look for the last position in which f is greater than or equal to the position (we call h this position). For example, if we have a researcher with 5 publications A, B, C, D, and E with 10, 8, 5, 4, and 3 citations, respectively, the h index is equal to 4 because the 4th publication has 4 citations and the 5th has only 3. In contrast, if the same publications have 25, 8, 5, 3, and 3, then the index is 3 because the fourth paper has only 3 citations.

f(A)=10, f(B)=8, f(C)=5, f(D)=4, f(E)=3 -> h-index=4

f(A)=25, f(B)=8, f(C)=5, f(D)=3, f(E)=3 -> h-index=3

If we have the function f ordered in decreasing order from the largest value to the lowest one, we can compute the h index as follows:

h-index (f) = ${\displaystyle \max _{i}\min(f(i),i)}$

The Hirsch index is equivalent to the Eddington number, an earlier metric used for evaluating cyclists. The h-index serves as an alternative to more traditional journal impact factor metrics in the evaluation of the impact of the work of a particular researcher. Because only the most highly cited articles contribute to the h-index, its determination is a simpler process. Hirsch has demonstrated that h has high predictive value for whether a scientist has won honors like National Academy membership or the Nobel Prize. The h-index grows as citations accumulate and thus it depends on the "academic age" of a researcher.

src: dfzljdn9uc3pi.cloudfront.net

Input data

The h-index can be manually determined using citation databases or using automatic tools. Subscription-based databases such as Scopus and the Web of Knowledge provide automated calculators. Harzing's Publish or Perish program calculates the h-index based on Google Scholar entries. From July 2011 Google have provided an automatically-calculated h-index and i10-index within their own Google Scholar profile. In addition, specific databases, such as the INSPIRE-HEP database can automatically calculate the h-index for researchers working in high energy physics.

Each database is likely to produce a different h for the same scholar, because of different coverage. A detailed study showed that the Web of Knowledge has strong coverage of journal publications, but poor coverage of high impact conferences. Scopus has better coverage of conferences, but poor coverage of publications prior to 1996; Google Scholar has the best coverage of conferences and most journals (though not all), but like Scopus has limited coverage of pre-1990 publications. The exclusion of conference proceedings papers is a particular problem for scholars in computer science, where conference proceedings are considered an important part of the literature. Google Scholar has been criticized for producing "phantom citations," including gray literature in its citation counts, and failing to follow the rules of Boolean logic when combining search terms. For example, the Meho and Yang study found that Google Scholar identified 53% more citations than Web of Knowledge and Scopus combined, but noted that because most of the additional citations reported by Google Scholar were from low-impact journals or conference proceedings, they did not significantly alter the relative ranking of the individuals. It has been suggested that in order to deal with the sometimes wide variation in h for a single academic measured across the possible citation databases, one should assume false negatives in the databases are more problematic than false positives and take the maximum h measured for an academic.

src: i.ytimg.com

Comparing results across fields and career levels

Comparing results between individuals will have to take into account (a) career stage, (b) publication frequency in the field, and (c) citation frequency in the field. A person at a higher career stage will have published more and the publications will have had more time to accumulate citations. How many publications a person authors or co-authors per year (b) differs greatly between disciplines. Also, how many citations a publication attracts per year (c) differs, esp. in how fast the take-up is. Finally, even if the average is the same, the distribution of citations will be different, across individuals, publications, and time.

Hirsch suggested that, for physicists, a value for h of about 12 might be typical for advancement to tenure (associate professor) at major research universities. A value of about 18 could mean a full professorship, 15-20 could mean a fellowship in the American Physical Society, and 45 or higher could mean membership in the United States National Academy of Sciences.

For the most highly cited scientists in the period 1983-2002, Hirsch identified the top 10 in the life sciences (in order of decreasing h): Solomon H. Snyder, h = 191; David Baltimore, h = 160; Robert C. Gallo, h = 154; Pierre Chambon, h = 153; Bert Vogelstein, h = 151; Salvador Moncada, h = 143; Charles A. Dinarello, h = 138; Tadamitsu Kishimoto, h = 134; Ronald M. Evans, h = 127; and Axel Ullrich, h = 120. Among 36 new inductees in the National Academy of Sciences in biological and biomedical sciences in 2005, the median h-index was 57. However, he points out that values of h will vary between different fields.

Among the 22 scientific disciplines listed in the Thomson Reuters Essential Science Indicators Citation Thresholds, physics has the second most citations after space science. During the period January 1, 2000 - February 28, 2010, a physicist had to receive 2073 citations to be among the most cited 1% of physicists in the world. The threshold for space science is the highest (2236 citations), and physics is followed by clinical medicine (1390) and molecular biology & genetics (1229). Most disciplines, such as environment/ecology (390), have fewer scientists, fewer papers, and fewer citations. Therefore, these disciplines have lower citation thresholds in the Essential Science Indicators, with the lowest citation thresholds observed in social sciences (154), computer science (149), and multidisciplinary sciences (147).

Numbers are very different in other disciplines: The Impact of the Social Sciences team at London School of Economics found that social scientists in the United Kingdom had lower average h-indices. The h-indices for ("full") professors, based on Google Scholar data ranged from 2.8 (in law), through 3.4 (in political science), 3.7 (in sociology), 6.5 (in geography) and 7.6 (in economics). On average across the disciplines, a professor in the social sciences had an h-index about twice that of a lecturer or a senior lecturer, though the difference was the smallest in geography.

Little systematic investigation has been made on how academic recognition correlates with h-index over different institutions, nations and fields of study - especially the arts and humanities.

src: meaningseeds.files.wordpress.com

Advantages

Hirsch intended the h-index to address the main disadvantages of other bibliometric indicators, such as total number of papers or total number of citations. Total number of papers does not account for the quality of scientific publications, while total number of citations can be disproportionately affected by participation in a single publication of major influence (for instance, methodological papers proposing successful new techniques, methods or approximations, which can generate a large number of citations), or having many publications with few citations each. The h-index is intended to measure simultaneously the quality and quantity of scientific output.

src: i.ytimg.com

Criticism

There are a number of situations in which h may provide misleading information about a scientist's output: Most of these however are not exclusive to the h-index.

• The h-index does not account for the typical number of citations in different fields. It has been stated that citation behavior in general is affected by field-dependent factors, which may invalidate comparisons not only across disciplines but even within different fields of research of one discipline.
• The h-index discards the information contained in author placement in the authors' list, which in some scientific fields is significant.
• The h-index has been found in one study to have slightly less predictive accuracy and precision than the simpler measure of mean citations per paper. However, this finding was contradicted by another study by Hirsch.
• The h-index is a natural number that reduces its discriminatory power. Ruane and Tol therefore propose a rational h-index that interpolates between h and h + 1.
• The h-index can be manipulated through self-citations, and if based on Google Scholar output, then even computer-generated documents can be used for that purpose, e.g. using SCIgen.
• The h-index does not provide a significantly more accurate measure of impact than the total number of citations for a given scholar. In particular, by modeling the distribution of citations among papers as a random integer partition and the h-index as the Durfee square of the partition, Yong arrived at the formula ${\displaystyle h\approx 0.54{\sqrt {N}}}$, where N is the total number of citations, which, for mathematics members of the National Academy of Sciences, turns out to provide an accurate (with errors typically within 10-20 percent) approximation of h-index in most cases.

src: wildlifesnpits.files.wordpress.com

Alternatives and modifications

Various proposals to modify the h-index in order to emphasize different features have been made. As the variants have proliferated, comparative studies have become possible showing that most proposals are highly correlated with the original h-index, although alternative indexes may be important to decide between comparable CVs, as often the case in evaluation processes.

• An individual h-index normalized by the number of author has been proposed: ${\displaystyle h_{I}=h^{2}/N_{a}^{(T)}}$, with ${\displaystyle N_{a}^{(T)}}$ being the number of authors considered in the ${\displaystyle h}$ papers. It was found that the distribution of the h-index, although it depends on the field, can be normalized by a simple rescaling factor. For example, assuming as standard the hs for biology, the distribution of h for mathematics collapse with it if this h is multiplied by three, that is, a mathematician with h = 3 is equivalent to a biologist with h = 9. This method has not been readily adopted, perhaps because of its complexity. It might be simpler to divide citation counts by the number of authors before ordering the papers and obtaining the h-index, as originally suggested by Hirsch.
• The m-index is defined as h/n, where n is the number of years since the first published paper of the scientist; also called m-quotient.
• There are a number of models proposed to incorporate the relative contribution of each author to a paper, for instance by accounting for the rank in the sequence of authors.
• A generalization of the h-index and some other indices that gives additional information about the shape of the author's citation function (heavy-tailed, flat/peaked, etc.) has been proposed.
• A successive Hirsch-type-index for institutions has also been devised. A scientific institution has a successive Hirsch-type-index of i when at least i researchers from that institution have an h-index of at least i.
• Three additional metrics have been proposed: h² lower, h² center, and h² upper, to give a more accurate representation of the distribution shape. The three h² metrics measure the relative area within a scientist's citation distribution in the low impact area, h² lower, the area captured by the h-index, h² center, and the area from publications with the highest visibility, h² upper. Scientists with high h² upper percentages are perfectionists, whereas scientists with high h² lower percentages are mass producers. As these metrics are percentages, they are intended to give a qualitative description to supplement the quantitative h-index.
• The g-index can be seen as the h-index for an averaged citations count.
• It has been argued that "For an individual researcher, a measure such as Erd?s number captures the structural properties of network whereas the h-index captures the citation impact of the publications. One can be easily convinced that ranking in coauthorship networks should take into account both measures to generate a realistic and acceptable ranking." Several author ranking systems such as eigenfactor (based on eigenvector centrality) have been proposed already, for instance the Phys Author Rank Algorithm.
• The c-index accounts not only for the citations but for the quality of the citations in terms of the collaboration distance between citing and cited authors. A scientist has c-index n if n of [his/her] N citations are from authors which are at collaboration distance at least n, and the other (N - n) citations are from authors which are at collaboration distance at most n.
• An s-index, accounting for the non-entropic distribution of citations, has been proposed and it has been shown to be in a very good correlation with h.
• The e-index, the square root of surplus citations for the h-set beyond h², complements the h-index for ignored citations, and therefore is especially useful for highly cited scientists and for comparing those with the same h-index (iso-h-index group).
• Because the h-index was never meant to measure future publication success, recently, a group of researchers has investigated the features that are most predictive of future h-index. It is possible to try the predictions using an online tool. However, later work has shown that since h-index is a cumulative measure, it contains intrinsic auto-correlation that led to significant overestimation of its predictability. Thus, the true predictability of future h-index is much lower compared to what has been claimed before.
• The h-index has been applied to Internet Media, such as YouTube channels. The h-index is defined as the number of videos with >= h × 10⁵ views. When compared with a video creator's total view count, the h-index and g-index better capture both productivity and impact in a single metric.
• The i10-index indicates the number of academic publications an author has written that have at least ten citations from others. It was introduced in July 2011 by Google as part of their work on Google Scholar.
• The h-index has been shown to have a strong discipline bias. However, a simple normalization ${\displaystyle h/\langle h\rangle _{d}}$ by the average h of scholars in a discipline d is an effective way to mitigate this bias, obtaining a universal impact metric that allows comparison of scholars across different disciplines. Of course this method does not deal with academic age bias.
• The h-index can be timed to analyze its evolution during one's career, employing different time windows.
• The o-index corresponds to the geometric mean of the h-index and the most cited paper of a researcher.

src: s3.amazonaws.com

See also

• Bibliometrics
• Comparison of research networking tools and research profiling systems

src: blog.scopus.com

References

src: i.ytimg.com

Further reading

• Alonso, S.; Cabrerizo, F. J.; Herrera-Viedma, E.; Herrera, F. (2009). "h-index: A Review Focused in its Variants, Computation and Standardization for Different Scientific Fields". Journal of Informetrics. 3 (4): 273-89. doi:10.1016/j.joi.2009.04.001. 
• Ball, Philip (2005). "Index aims for fair ranking of scientists". Nature. 436 (7053): 900. Bibcode:2005Natur.436..900B. doi:10.1038/436900a. PMID 16107806. 
• Iglesias, Juan E.; Pecharromán, Carlos. "Scaling the h-index for different scientific ISI fields" (PDF). 
• Kelly, C. D.; Jennions, M. D. (2006). "The h index and career assessment by numbers". Trends Ecol. Evol. 21 (4): 167-70. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2006.01.005. PMID 16701079. 
• Lehmann, S.; Jackson, A. D.; Lautrup, B. E. (2006). "Measures for measures". Nature. 444 (7122): 1003-04. Bibcode:2006Natur.444.1003L. doi:10.1038/4441003a. PMID 17183295. 
• Panaretos, J.; Malesios, C. (2009). "Assessing Scientific Research Performance and Impact with Single Indices". Scientometrics. 81 (3): 635-70. doi:10.1007/s11192-008-2174-9. 
• Petersen, A. M.; Stanley, H. Eugene; Succi, Sauro (2011). "Statistical Regularities in the Rank-Citation Profile of Scientists". Nature Scientific Reports. 181: 1-7. arXiv:1103.2719 . Bibcode:2011NatSR...1E.181P. doi:10.1038/srep00181. 
• Sidiropoulos, Antonis; Katsaros, Dimitrios; Manolopoulos, Yannis (2007). "Generalized Hirsch h-index for disclosing latent facts in citation networks". Scientometrics. 72 (2): 253-80. doi:10.1007/s11192-007-1722-z. 
• Soler, José M. (2007). "A rational indicator of scientific creativity". Journal of Informetrics. 1 (2): 123-30. doi:10.1016/j.joi.2006.10.004. 
• Symonds, M. R.; et al. (2006). Tregenza, Tom, ed. "Gender differences in publication output: towards an unbiased metric of research performance". PLoS ONE. 1 (1): e127. Bibcode:2006PLoSO...1..127S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000127. PMC 1762413 . PMID 17205131. 
• Taber, Douglass F. (2005). "Quantifying Publication Impact". Science. 309 (5744): 2166a. doi:10.1126/science.309.5744.2166a. PMID 16195445. 
• Woeginger, Gerhard j. (2008). "An axiomatic characterization of the Hirsch-index". Mathematical Social Sciences. 56 (2): 224-32. doi:10.1016/j.mathsocsci.2008.03.001. 

src: i.ytimg.com

External links

• Google Scholar Metrics
• H-index for economists
• H-index for computer science researchers
• H-index for astronomers

Source of article : Wikipedia