In academia, we often want to know the scientific impact of a researcher. Basically, the academic community wants to know if anybody cares about what you have published. In brief, your scientific impact depends on the number of citations you have received for your work. The higher the citations, the more significant your work is.
However, there is a useful metric known as the Hirsch index or h-number which is used nowadays to gauge this scientific impact. And often, universities use this metric to assess potential faculty candidates or use it as a guideline for tenure decisions. Typically, for top universities, assistant professors would have an h-index of around 5+, tenured professors would have it around 10-12 and a full professor would have a value of 20 or more. An average recent PhD graduate would have an h-index of 1-2. But of course, there are always exceptions! There are faculty members with h-index lower than 5!
Michael Nielsen correctly pointed out that it is possible to estimate one's h-index without all the math simply by computing the following:
h ~ √(T)/2, where T is the total number of citations.
To have a more accurate value, you can use prof. Harzing's "Publish or Perish" software.
Just for curiosity, I have an h-index of 6!
Well, h-index, like most things, is not foolproof. It has it's flaws. It can also be tweaked by writing a review article. But nevertheless, it is a good approximation of a researcher's scientific impact on the community.
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