Statistical inference on the h-index with an application to top-scientist performance

Despite the huge amount of literature concerning the h-index, few papers have been devoted to its statistical analysis when a probabilistic distribution is assumed for citation counts. The present contribution mainly aims to divulge the inferential techniques recently introduced by Pratelli et al. (2012), by explaining the details for proper point and set estimation of the theoretical h-index. Moreover, some new achievements on simultaneous inference – addressed to produce suitable scholar comparisons – are carried out. Finally, the analysis of the citation dataset for the Nobel Laureates (in the last five years) and for the Fields medallists (from 2002 onward) is considered in order to exemplify the theoretical issues.