Comparative analysis between impact factor and h-index for pharmacology and psychiatry journals

Using strictly the same parameters (identical two publication years (2004 2005) and identical one-year citation window (2006)), IF 2006 was compared with h-index 2006 for two samples of "Pharmacology and Pharmacy" and "Psychiatry" journals computed from the ISI Web of Science. For the two samples, the IF and the h-index rankings of the journals are very different. The correlation coefficient between the IF and the h-index is high for Psychiatry but lower for Pharmacology. The linearity test performed between the h-index and IF alpha/alpha+1.n(1/alpha+1) showed the great sensitivity of the model compared with alpha. The IF and h-index can be completely complementary when evaluating journals of the same scientific discipline.