In Brief

Ready, Get Set… Picnic!
Mark your calendars—July 21st is the date set for the annual Scripps Research Summer Picnic. This year, the Picnic Committee proudly presents "TSRI Bourbon Street Scene" and invites all employees to share in fun, food, games, music, and prizes starting at 3:30 PM on Friday, July 21 at the CIMBio Building, 3215 Merrifield Row, front parking lot. Four large shuttle buses, two dedicated to each side of the campus, will take people to and from the picnic site. Tickets will be on sale Monday, July 10 through Wednesday, July 19. Tickets are only sold in advance and are not sold at the picnic. More information will be in employee mailboxes and on the web soon.

Library Tip: What's Your H-Index?
The h-index is a new method of measuring the scientific output of a researcher, as proposed by UCSD physics professor Jorge Hirsch in the November 15, 2005, issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (see http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/102/46/16569). Hirsch wanted to create a measurement that was transparent and free from bias.

To search for a scholar's h-index, use the Web of Science database. Click "General Search," enter the name in the Author box, and click "Search". This brings up a list of papers by that author, back to 1945. Under "Sort by" in the right-hand menu, select "Times Cited" to reorder the list from the most highly cited papers to least cited.

The h-index is obtained by moving down this list until the number indicating the position of the paper on the list exceeds the number of citations from that paper. For example, Robert H. Grubbs, who shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, has an h-index of 83, as the 83rd paper on his list of publications has been cited 84 times, but the 84th paper has been cited 83 times. In other words, Dr. Grubbs has published 83 papers with at least 83 citations each. For assistance in searching Web of Science, please contact the Kresge Library at x4-8705 or email helplib@scripps.edu.

Send comments to: mikaono[at]scripps.edu