What’s a Good H-Index? Benchmarks by Career Stage & Field

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“What’s a good h-index?” is one of the most common questions researchers ask. The answer depends on your career stage, field, and publication patterns.

H-Index Benchmarks by Career Stage

Here’s a general guide based on typical academic careers:

H-Index	Rating	Typical Stage
60+	Exceptional	World-leading, Nobel-class
40-59	Outstanding	Full professor, department chair
25-39	Excellent	Established associate/full professor
15-24	Very Good	Mid-career, associate professor
10-14	Good	Assistant professor, 5-10 years post-PhD
5-9	Developing	Postdoc, early assistant professor
1-4	Early Career	PhD student, new postdoc

H-Index Varies by Field

Different fields have very different citation patterns:

• Biomedical sciences: Higher average h-indexes (more papers, more citations)
• Physics/Chemistry: Moderate h-indexes
• Computer Science: Lower h-indexes (conferences > journals)
• Humanities: Much lower h-indexes (books > papers)
• Mathematics: Lower h-indexes (longer time to citations)

A biomedical researcher with h-index 30 and a mathematician with h-index 15 might have equivalent impact in their fields.

Average H-Index for Professors

Based on studies of academic faculty:

• Assistant Professor: h-index 2-10
• Associate Professor: h-index 8-20
• Full Professor: h-index 15-40+
• Highly Cited Researchers: h-index 50+

Check Your H-Index

Want to know your h-index? Use our free H-Index Lookup Tool — just enter your name, no login required.

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Beyond the H-Index

The h-index is just one metric. Consider also:

• i10-index: Papers with 10+ citations
• Total citations: Raw citation count
• Citations per paper: Average impact
• Field-normalized metrics: Compared to field average

The best researchers focus on doing good work — the metrics follow.