Psicothema was founded in Asturias (northern Spain) in 1989, and is published jointly by the Psychology Faculty of the University of Oviedo and the Psychological Association of the Principality of Asturias (Colegio Oficial de Psicología del Principado de Asturias).
We currently publish four issues per year, which accounts for some 100 articles annually. We admit work from both the basic and applied research fields, and from all areas of Psychology, all manuscripts being anonymously reviewed prior to publication.
Psicothema, 2007. Vol. Vol. 19 (nº 2). 179-189
Jesús F. Salgado y Darío Páez*
Universidad de Santiago de Compostela y * Universidad del País Vasco
En este artículo se describe el Índice h de Hirsch como medida de la productividad y calidad científica de los investigadores, examinando su validez convergente con otras medidas de calidad y productividad (citas totales, cita máxima, sexenios, antigüedad como doctor y como catedrático), su distribución entre los catedráticos de Psicología Social de España, comparando los diez catedráticos con h más elevada de las seis áreas de conocimiento en que está dividida la Psicología académica en España. Los resultados indican que correlaciona ampliamente con las citas pero solo muy modestamente con el número de sexenios de investigación. Las distribuciones por áreas indican que Psicobiología y Psicología básica tienen un Índice h más elevado que las restantes, ocupando la Psicología social el cuarto puesto. Finalmente, discutimos las implicaciones de estos resultados y hacemos sugerencias para su uso en la toma de decisiones académicas y de investigación.
Scientific productivity and Hirsch= s h Index of Spanish social psychology: Convergence between productivity indexes and comparison with other areas. This article describes Hirsch= s h index as a measure of researchers= scientific productivity and quality, examining its convergent validity with other productivity and quality measures (total citations, maximum citation, sexennials, years since earning Ph.D., and years as a full professor). It shows the distribution of the index among Spanish Social Psychology professors, and a comparison is made among the ten professors with highest h index of the six knowledge areas into which academic Psychology is divided in Spain. The results show that the index largely correlates with the citations but only very modestly with the number of sexennial investigations. The distributions by areas show that Psychobiology and Basic Psychology, as a whole, have a higher h index than the other areas, with Social Psychology in fourth place. Lastly, we discuss the implications of these results and we offer some recommendations for using the index in academic and research decision making.