Claims:1. Z-Index for individual work and researcher self-citation is to discover a new metric as a persistent need to use as a substitute or as a complementary to the Hirsch index (h-index), as a useful measure to characterize the scientific output and impact of scholarly research contributions by using the combination of the total number of publications with the total number of citations per document.
2. Z-Index for individual work and researcher self-citation of claim 1, wherein said that in recent years, self-citation has paid more attention to the education and academic scientific sector.
3. Z-Index for individual work and researcher self-citation of claim 1, wherein is a useful tool to monitor the quality of individual scientific work related to all disciplines.
4. Z-Index for individual work and researcher self-citation of claim 1, wherein said that is a suitable measurement for monitoring the quality of any researcher all work together.
5. Z-Index for individual work and researcher self-citation of claim 1, wherein said the possibility of using the index as one of the key performance indicators in evaluating the process of the research performance.
6. Z-Index for individual work and researcher self-citation of claim 1, wherein said is a method of reducing the self-citation of scholar own work and coauthor's works.
7. Z-Index for individual work and researcher self-citation of claim 1, wherein said facilitate the process of comparing the percentage of self-citation between researchers themselves or their works within a specific discipline or among different disciplines.
8. Z-Index for individual work and researcher self-citation of claim 1, wherein said that the possibility to guide decision-makers in academic institutions for hiring, funding, and even promotion of the researchers or scholars. Z-Index for individual work and researcher self-citation of claim 1, wherein said subsequent expected studies will be paused to find out the percentage of self-citation at the specific discipline level or among various disciplines.
9. Z-Index for individual work and researcher self-citation of claim 1, wherein said that reduce the rapid boost of the researcher visibility and impact with little effort or at least identify the researchers and their works that have done so. Z-Index for individual work and researcher self-citation of claim 1, wherein said that a number of future challenges must be considered with care.
10. Z-Index for individual work and researcher self-citation of claim 1, wherein said that the research looks at all of the important and recent work that has been done so far, as well as its limitations and challenges.
, Description:[0001] Background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
[0002] Several studies found a correlation between the greater number of total publications, total citations, h-index, and the individual researcher's self-citation rate. The H-index still has the problem of portability to manipulation by researchers via self-citation due to no consensus on how to handle self-citation data yet in assessing the work individually (per document) or researcher work together (all documents). Therefore, self-citation is considered as a limitation to the h-index and may potentially inflate an individual researcher’s h-index. Despite many additions, modifications and updates appeared on the h-index or some new indicators were created such as G-index, hg-index, S-index, A-index, R-index, AR-index, h2-index, M-index, hw-index, i10-index, mh-index, hm-index, PR-index, Y-index, Hr-index, HB-index, and K-index. But still, all of these indices do not overcome the manipulation by using the self-citation to increase the quality index score of each scientific work (per document) or the scientific researcher works collectively (all documents). This study proposed a new metric(Z-index) to stop the exaggerating and magnitude manipulation in H-index metrics using the self-citation among the scholars or researchers to estimate the real quality of individual works (per document) or researchers’ work together (all document) without self-citation. The Z-index will help the new scholars or researchers to choose a better list of references or sources subjectively and effectively at the beginning of writing their next studies. Also, the index will motivate the researcher positively to reduce the rate of self-citation in their future work, and then the index will succeed in showing the real results by eliminating exaggeration and manipulation of the index results through the self-citation.
[0003] Nowadays, many studies have been paying closer attention to self-citation phenomena even the Clarivate as an owner of the Web of Science has expressed concern about the case of unusual patterns of self-citation by scholars and these studies attempted to find out a new method or methodology to calculate the researcher’s self-citation records.
[0004] Despite the existence of the h-index which was proposed scale by Hirsch in (2005) to measure the quality of the researcher’s work, in the same year m-index (m-quotient) was proposed by Hirsch himself. Subsequently, many additions, modifications, and updates appeared on the h-index or some new indicators were created such as G-index, hg-index, S-index, A-index, R-index and AR-index, h2-index, M-index, hw-index, i10-index, mh-index, hm-index, PR-index, Y-index, Hr-index, HB-index, and K-index. All of them came out as an alternative to the H-index to measure the quality of the researcher’s scientific output. However, most of them failed in knowing the real value of each researcher’s scientific output individually (per document), nor on the researcher’s overall scientific output (all documents) after excluding self-citation, because the self-citation has become a phenomenon used by researchers to manipulate the results of the index.
[0005] It appeared in public with the h-index, a phenomenon used by researchers to manipulate the results of the h-index using self-citation. Therefore, the results are high and large, but these results are not really due to self-citation, and this may exist in some disciplines more than others.
[0006] Although, there is a lot of scientific research that has studied and analyzed the percentage of the effects of extensive self-citation on various disciplines. They investigated and evaluated the influence of the possibility of self-citation on underlying rank manipulations in h-index or citation circles which means the groups of researchers who cite one another works. Even some studies find that self-citation has a minimal impact on the academic profile, and it is infrequent in some disciplines as well. However, so far, there is no clear measure that excludes self-citation before determining the quality of the scientific output, whether to measure individual scientific work (per document) or the quality of the researcher through their scientific works collectively (all documents).
[0007] Briefly, one major problem of the h-index is its portability to manipulate by researchers through self-citation. There is no general agreement on how to handle self-citation data yet. As a result, there is no index that evaluates the work individually or researchers’ work together. Therefore, the proposed index (Z-index) comes out to avoid exaggerating in H-index metrics and to prevent the magnitude manipulation using the self-citation among the researchers to estimate the quality level of individual works or researchers who all work without self-citation.
[0008] A number of different types of citation parameters are known in the prior art. For example, the following patents are provided for their supportive teachings and are all incorporated by reference.
[0009] Patent Citation Analysis: Calculating Science Linkage Based on Citing Motivation Science linkage is a widely used patent bibliometric indicator to measure patent linkage to scientific research based on the frequency of citations to scientific papers within the patent. Science linkage is also regarded as noisy because the subject of patent citation behaviour varies from inventors/applicants to examiners. In order to identify and ultimately reduce this noise.
[0010] The purpose of this study is to discover a new index as a persistent need to use as a substitute or as a complementary to the Hirsch index (h-index), as a useful measure to characterize the scientific output and impact of scholarly research contributions by using the combination of the total number of publications with the total number of citations per document. Nowadays the h-index is widely used as an important scale for academic ranking or hiring, academic promotion, and researchers’ funding or project grants.
[0011] In addition, some specialties may accept individual researchers to work with others in teamwork to increase the number of publications and citations by self-citation. Furthermore, there is a correlation between the greater number of total publications, total citations, h-index, and the individual researcher's self-citation rate. Therefore, self-citation is considered as a limitation to the h-index and may potentially inflate an individual researcher’s h-index.
[0012] Above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, no assertion is made, and as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present invention.
[0013] In the view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types citation parameters now present in the prior art, the present invention provides an improved system. As such, the general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a new and improved Z-index for individual work and researcher self-citation determination that has all the advantages of the prior art and none of the disadvantages.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION
[0014] In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of citation of parameters now present in the prior art.As such, the general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a new and improved Z-index for individual work and researcher self-citation determination which has all the advantages of the prior art and none of the disadvantages.
[0015] The main objective of the proposed invention is that Z-index for researchers and per document.
1. The possibility to use the Z- index to guide decision-makers in academic institutions for hiring, funding, and even promotion of the researchers or scholars.
2. A useful tool to monitor the quality of individual scientific work.
3. The possibility of using the index as one of the key performance indicators in evaluating the process of the research performance.
4. Suitable measurement for monitoring the quality of any researcher all work together.
5. A direct transparent way to identify the value of scientific works and the quality of the researchers.
6. The index is a method of reducing the self-citation of own work and coauthor's works.
7. The index is an incentive to reduce the use of unessential references or nonrelated work to the current study.
8. An acceptable way of determining whether the scholar or researchers violated ethical standards.
9. The index can be used to overcome the concern of using self-citation to obtain some privileges.
10. An index is a useful tool to prevent the status of an author from citing their work too heavily to increase citations through self-citation especially in collaborative work such as forcing graduate students by some supervisors to cite their work extensively.
11. The Z-index prevents an author from using high self-citation for his work because it will reflect the same percentage on all researchers, especially in collaborative research.
12. If the Z-index is applied, for example, on the Google Scholar homepage, then all subsequent expected studies will be paused to find out the percentage of self-citation at the specific discipline level or among various disciplines.
13. The Z-index will facilitate the process of comparing the percentage of self-citation between researchers themselves or their works within a specific discipline or among different disciplines.
14. The Z-index will stop or reduce the rapid boost of the researcher visibility and impact with little effort or at least identify the researchers and their works that have done so.
15. The Z-index will be a successful way to motivate researchers to use a wide variety of sources in their research to reduce self-citation rates.
[0016] In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
[0017] These together with other objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty that characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages, and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there are illustrated preferred embodiments of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0018] The invention will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
Figure 1 illustrates the Z-Index for Individual Work (Per Document) Self-Citation Ratio of Z-index for individual work and researcher self-citation, according to the embodiment herein.
Figure 2 illustrates the z-index for researcher (all documents) self-citation ratio of Z-index for individual work and researcher self-citation, according to the embodiment herein.
Figure 3 illustrates the Z-index in Google Scholar Homepage of Z-index for individual work and researcher self-citation, according to the embodiment herein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION
[0019] In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that the embodiments may be combined, or that other embodiment may be utilized, and that structural and logical changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
[0020] While the present invention is described herein by way of example using several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is neither intended to be limited to the embodiments of drawing or drawings described nor intended to represent the scale of the various components. Further, some components that may form a part of the invention may not be illustrated in certain figures, for ease of illustration, and such omissions do not limit the embodiments outlined in any way. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the invention covers all modification/s, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. The headings are used for organizational purposes only and are not meant to limit the scope of the description or the claims.
[0021] Model Specification
Part One: Z-Index for Individual Work (Per Document) Self-Citation
[0022] As expected, the Z-index is more reliable for determining the scientific quality level of individual work compared to the original h-index and aftermath modification such as (m quotient, G-index, hg-index, A-index, R-index, AR-index, h2-index, M-index, hw-index, i10-index, mh-index, hm-index, PR-index, Y-index, K-index) due to ignoring the author’s numbers in collaborative work, self-citations by author or co-authors, the total number of documents and references used in per document.
[0023] The Z-index is designed to have a value, unlike the h-index, due to using a different methodology. Therefore, the Z-index is calculated per document based on an author’s work using the total author and co-authors’ self-citations, the total number of authors, and the total number of documents used as references. The Z-Index equation (1) is to calculate the quality of author individual work (per document) by dividing the Self-Citation (SC) of author and co-authors to authors number (AN) divided by Total References (TR) used in certain work multiple percent (%).
Z-index = (SC / AN) / (TR)*% ……... (1)
Z-Index for individual work (per document) self-citation ratio examples: (Appendix)
Case / One author: Z-index = (1/1) / 30 * % = 3.3% ………………. (Example1)
Case / Two authors: Z-index = (7+5/2) / 45 * % = 13.3% …………. (Example2)
Case / Three authors: Z-index = (11+2+16/3) / 45 * % = 21.5% …... (Example3)
Case / Four authors: Z-index = (16+3+27+4/4) / 87 * % = 14.4% …. (Example4)
Case / Eight authors: Z-index = (21+40+1+22+4+15+35+8/8) / 100 * % = 18.3% … (Example5

[0024] Guideline: A researcher’s score of Z-Index for individual work (per document) is the perceived ratio of self-citation which produces scores that can range from (0) to (100), where zero means no self-citation at all in specific scientific work, and the index with higher value presents higher self-citation and vice versa. The result is preferable if it is less than (2%), the result is acceptable if it is less than (5%) and the result is undesirable if it is more than (5%).
[0025] Z-index Calculation for Individual Work (Per Document) Self-Citation Ratio
Author No. Author Self-Citation Total Self-Citation Author No. Total References Z-Index
Case One Author
1 1 1 1 30 3.3
Case Two Authors
2 7 12 2 45 13.3
5
Case Three Authors
3 11 29 3 45 21.5
2
16
Case Four Authors
4 16 50 4 87 14.4
3
27
4
Case Eight Authors
8 21 146 8 100 18.3
40
1
22
4
15
35
8
Part Two: Z-Index for Researcher (All Documents) Self-Citation
The Z-index for the researcher is related to the results of Z-index individual work (per document) as mentioned in part one, hence the Z-index for the researcher is the average of the Z-index of individual work (per document).
[0026] The Z-index is calculated for the researcher based on cumulative works of an individual document; hence the Z-Index equation (2) is to calculate the quality of any author all work together (all documents) by dividing the sum of the Z-index result of the total individual document (TD) to the total number of documents (TN) multiple percent (%).
Z-index = TD / TN ……... (2)
Z-Index self-citation ratio for all researcher work (all documents) examples:
Z-Index for researcher calculate by the average of Z-index of all works done by the author. Assuming that the author in the first example is participating in all other examples works, so the Z-index will be as follows:
Z-Index researcher = average of Z-index individual work results in all five examples
Z-index = (Sum of all Individual Documents Z-index results) ÷ (Total Number of Documents)
Z-index = (3.3+13.3+21.5+14.4+18.3) / 5 = 70.8 / 5 = 14.2%
[0027] Guideline: The Z-index for any researcher all work (all document) together is the perceived ratio of self-citation for each researcher produces scores that can range from (0) to (100), where zero means no self-citation in all works together which done by the researcher, and the index with higher value presents higher self-citation and vice versa. The result is preferable if it is less than (2%), the result is acceptable if it is less than (5%) and the result is undesirable if it is more than (5%).
[0028] Z-index Calculation for all researcher work (all documents) Self-Citation Ratio
Example Case Author No. Z-index Per Document
Example 1 One author 3.3
Example2 Two authors 13.3
Example 3 Three authors 21.5
Example 4 Four authors 14.4
Example 5 Eight authors 18.3
Z-Index for Researcher 14.2%

[0029] Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Before describing the detailed embodiments that are in accordance with the present disclosure, it should be observed that the embodiment resides primarily in combinations arrangement of the system according to an embodiment herein and as exemplified in FIG. 1
[0030] Figure 1 illustrates the Z-Index for Individual Work (Per Document) Self-Citation Ratio of z-index for individual work and researcher self-citation
[0031] Figure 2 illustrates the z-index for researcher (all documents) self-citation ratio of z-index for individual work and researcher self-citation
[0032] Figure 3 illustrates the Z-index in Google Scholar Homepage of z-index for individual work and researcher self-citation
[0033] In the following description, for the purpose of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the arrangement of the system according to an embodiment herein. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present embodiment can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, structures are shown in block diagram form only in order to avoid obscuring the present invention.