What is the i10-Index?

The i10-index is a very simple metric:

It is the number of publications an author has written that have at least 10 citations.

That's it. It is a direct count of your "solidly" performing papers.

• If you have 3 papers with 10 or more citations, your i10-index is 3.

• If you publish a new paper and it receives its 10th citation, your i10-index will increase to 4.

• It does not matter if a paper has 10 citations or 1,000 citations; it only counts as "one" toward your i10-index.

Its main purpose is to give you a quick, at-a-glance idea of an author's productivity in terms of producing "solid" research that is being cited by peers. It is less susceptible to being skewed by one or two "blockbuster" papers, unlike the total citation count.

How to Improve Your i10-Index

Since the i10-index is a direct count, the only way to improve it is to get more of your publications to the 10-citation threshold.

This involves a combination of two main strategies:

1. Long-Term Strategy: Focus on Publication Quality

The most effective way to get citations is to publish high-quality, novel, and useful research.

• Publish Impactful Work: Focus on research that solves a clear problem, presents a novel finding, or provides a useful review. This is the foundation of all citations.

• Target High-Visibility Venues: Submit your best work to reputable, high-visibility journals and conferences in your field. The more people who see your paper, the more likely it is to be cited.

• Use Clear "SEO" for Your Title: Create a clear, descriptive, and keyword-rich title for your paper. This is how other researchers will find your work when they search.

2. Active Strategy: Promote Your Work & Manage Your Profile

You can take active steps to increase the visibility of your existing papers, especially those with 5-9 citations.

• Promote Your Work: Share your newly published articles on academic networks like ResearchGate and Academia.edu, as well as on professional platforms like LinkedIn.

• Present at Conferences: Presenting your work (even after publication) can draw new attention to it and lead to citations from other attendees.

• Ethical Self-Citation: When you write a new paper, make sure to appropriately cite your own previous work that it builds upon. This is a standard and ethical practice, and it directly helps move your older papers toward the 10-citation mark.

• Collaborate: Co-authoring papers with researchers from different institutions and countries can dramatically expand your paper's visibility to new networks.

3. The "Housekeeping" Step: Clean Your Profile

This is the most important immediate action you can take. Your i10-index may be artificially low due to a common Google Scholar error: duplicates.

• Find and Merge Duplicates:

  1. Go to your Google Scholar profile.

  2. Carefully look through your list of publications.

  3. Does Google Scholar list your paper twice? (e.g., one entry for the preprint on arXiv with 5 citations, and one for the journal version with 6 citations).

  4. If so, neither of these counts toward your i10-index.

  5. Check the boxes next to both duplicate entries and click the "MERGE" button at the top.

  6. Google Scholar will combine them into one entry with 11 citations.

  7. Your i10-index will instantly increase by one.

By focusing on high-quality publishing and actively managing your profile's accuracy, you can effectively improve your i10-index over time.