i10-Index
Also known as: Google Scholar i10-index, i10 index, ten-citation index
The i10-index is a deliberately simple author-level metric introduced by Google Scholar in 2011 for its Scholar Citations profiles. It counts the number of a researcher's publications that have each accumulated at least ten citations. Unlike the h-index, whose threshold depends on the rank of the paper, the i10-index applies a single fixed cutoff, making it transparent and trivial to compute. Its appeal lies in this simplicity and in its native availability on every Google Scholar profile, though it is used almost exclusively within the Google Scholar ecosystem and offers less discriminating power than rank-based indices.
Key highlights
- Extremely simple and transparent: a plain count of papers with at least ten citations, with no ranking or formula.
- Available automatically on every Google Scholar Citations profile, requiring no extra computation.
- Easy for non-specialists to understand and explain, unlike rank-dependent indices.
- Captures the breadth of an author's reasonably-cited output rather than being dominated by a single paper.
Intuition
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How it works
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When to use it
Use the i10-index as a quick, transparent indicator of how many of an author's papers have achieved at least moderate citation impact, especially when working within Google Scholar where it is reported automatically. It is convenient for at-a-glance profile summaries and for distinguishing prolific authors with many solidly cited papers. It is not appropriate as a primary evaluation metric for serious assessment: its fixed ten-citation cutoff ignores field differences in citation density, it does not weight highly cited papers, and it is computed only over Google Scholar's coverage, which differs from Scopus and Web of Science. Treat it as a supplementary, easily understood number rather than a basis for ranking researchers.
Strengths & limitations
- Extremely simple and transparent: a plain count of papers with at least ten citations, with no ranking or formula.
- Available automatically on every Google Scholar Citations profile, requiring no extra computation.
- Easy for non-specialists to understand and explain, unlike rank-dependent indices.
- Captures the breadth of an author's reasonably-cited output rather than being dominated by a single paper.
- Uses an arbitrary fixed cutoff of ten citations that ignores disciplinary differences in citation rates.
- Does not reward highly cited papers, since any paper above the threshold counts equally.
- Computed only over Google Scholar's coverage, which is broader and noisier than Scopus or Web of Science.
- Offers limited discriminating power and is rarely accepted as a primary metric in formal research evaluation.
Common pitfalls
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Applications
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Frequently asked
What is the i10-index?
The i10-index is the number of an author's publications that have each received at least ten citations. It was created by Google Scholar and is displayed on Scholar Citations profiles. A paper counts toward the index once it crosses ten citations, regardless of whether it has exactly ten or several thousand, so the index measures how many solidly cited papers an author has produced.
How does the i10-index differ from the h-index?
The h-index uses a moving threshold tied to paper rank: it is the largest number h such that h papers each have at least h citations. The i10-index uses a single fixed threshold of ten citations for every paper. This makes the i10-index simpler and more transparent but coarser, because it cannot distinguish among authors whose well-cited papers differ greatly in impact, whereas the h-index partly reflects that height.
Is the i10-index suitable for research evaluation?
It is best used as a quick, supplementary summary rather than a primary evaluation metric. Its fixed ten-citation cutoff ignores field-specific citation cultures, it does not reward highly cited work, and it is computed only over Google Scholar's coverage. Serious assessments combine it with the h-index, field-normalized indicators, and qualitative judgment rather than relying on the i10-index alone.
Sources
- 1.Cornell University Library. Measuring Your Research Impact: i10-Index. Defines the i10-index as the number of publications with at least 10 citations, created and used by Google Scholar.
- 2.Hirsch, J. E. (2005). An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(46), 16569-16572.
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Cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 23). i10-Index. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/bibliometrics/i10-index