Google Scholar tool gives extra credit to first and last authors

"The h-index - a widely used measure of impact based on publications and citation count over time - treats all of an author's papers equally, irrespective of whether they are a first, last or middle author. A browser extension called GScholarLens now aims to change that for Google Scholar users. Launched earlier this year for the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers, the tool provides a weighted metric, called the Scholar h-index (S h-index), which accounts for a researcher's position in author lists."

"The tool gives corresponding (or last) authors the highest weighting: 100% of the citations that their paper accumulates contributed to their S h-index. First authors receive the second-highest weighting, of 90% of the total citations. Second authors get a 50% weighting. Other co-authors get 25% if there are six or fewer authors, or 10% if there are seven or more authors, according to a preprint published in September by the tool's creators."

GScholarLens is a browser extension for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox that introduces the Scholar h-index (S h-index), a weighted alternative to the traditional h-index that accounts for author position. The S h-index assigns 100% weighting to corresponding/last authors, 90% to first authors, 50% to second authors, and 25% or 10% to other co-authors depending on total author count. The metric prioritizes first and last authors as primary contributors in most fields and aims to help researchers, institutions and policymakers evaluate contributions more fairly. Weightings may be adjusted later based on user feedback.

Read at Nature