Hirsch index or Hirsch rate? Some thoughts arising from Liang's data

Hirsch's h- index gives a single number that in some sense summarizes an author's research output and its impact. Since an individual author's h-index will be time-dependent, we propose instead the h- rate which, according to theory, is (almost) constant. We re-analyse a previously published data set (LIANG, 2006) which, although not of the precise form to properly test our model, reveals that in many cases we do not have a constant h- rate. On the other hand this then suggests ways in which deeper scientometric investigations could be carried out. This work should be viewed as complementary to that of LIANG (2006).