Contemporary h-Index

The contemporary h-index, introduced by Sidiropoulos, Katsaros, and Manolopoulos in 2007, modifies Hirsch's h-index to reward recent scientific activity over old laurels. The plain h-index never decreases and treats a citation earned decades ago the same as one earned last year, so a researcher who has stopped publishing can coast on an aging body of work. The contemporary index assigns each paper an age-discounted score, multiplying its citation count by a factor that shrinks as the paper grows older, and then applies the usual h-index ranking criterion to these scores. The result distinguishes currently active, recently impactful researchers from those whose reputation rests on distant achievements.