A new index for assessing faculty research performance in higher educational institutions of emerging economies such as India

Evaluating and quantifying the scientific output of a researcher is a complex problem that may not benefit from standardized or uniformly accepted solutions. Over the past few decades, various indices, including the most popular h-index, have been introduced for assessing the output and quality of research publications. The uniform application of a single index to researchers with varying age, tenure, gender, economies, funding opportunities, nature of tasks performed, etc., can introduce significant bias, eventually leading to inappropriate assessment results for promotion and tenure. Further, no indices explicitly account for the time spent on teaching-related tasks, advising students for their projects not necessarily resulting in publications, and administration work leading to a situation that favors colleagues who are focused only on research. A new metric, called GG-index, for internal use by institutions of higher education, is proposed to evaluate researchers who have spent a minimum of five continuous years at the academic/research institution. This GG-index is calculated from the h-index, the logarithm of the scientific tenure, citations/paper over the recent 5-year period, and a correction factor that considers the relative dedication to research and the researcher’s field. A survey was conducted of some top researchers in various fields, and their publication parameters and responses are used to illustrate the robustness and characteristics of the GG-index. We further demonstrate how the GG-index complements the h-index and helps mitigate the bias against researchers with long-term breaks for maternity, childcare, and other personal reasons. Further, young researchers with good recent publication impact (reflected by high citations per paper) and those working in fields with low citations would also be benefited. It is, however, to be noted that the GG index strongly relies on data available with the institutions, thus making it suitable for the internal assessment of faculty/researchers.