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The h-index is the largest h for which h papers each have at least h citations, so it is the smaller of the two figures entered. An h of 18 implies at least 324 citations. Dividing by career length gives the m quotient: Hirsch suggested m near 1 for a successful academic, 2 for outstanding and 3 for truly exceptional.
h index
the largest h such that h papers each have h or more citations
m quotient
m = h index / years since first publication
Because it resists both a long tail of uncited papers and a single blockbuster, so it captures sustained impact better than raw counts.
It can never fall, disadvantages early-career researchers, ignores author order and cannot be compared across fields.