g-Index Calculator

The g-index is a bibliometric measure of an author's citation impact, defined by Leo Egghe in 2006. Rank your papers from most to least cited, then find the largest number g such that the top g papers together have at least g squared citations. Unlike the h-index, it gives extra weight to your most-cited papers, so a few highly cited works can raise it.

Sort your per-paper citation counts in descending order and add them up one paper at a time. The g-index is the largest g where the running total of the top g papers is at least g squared. For example, with citations 10, 8, 5, 4, 3, the top 5 papers have 30 citations, which is at least 5 squared (25), so the g-index is 5.

The h-index is the largest h where h papers each have at least h citations, so it ignores how far above that threshold your top papers sit. The g-index instead works from the cumulative citations of your top g papers, which rewards highly cited work. For the same publication list the g-index is always greater than or equal to the h-index.

In Egghe's original definition, yes. Once every real paper is in the top set and your total citations reach at least N squared (where N is your paper count), the list is padded with fictitious zero-citation papers, so g can grow up to the square root of your total citations. This calculator shows that theoretical value separately and reports a capped g-index, never above your paper count, as the main figure, matching tools like Publish or Perish.

Enter the total number of times each paper has been cited, one whole number per paper. Use values of zero or more; papers with zero citations still count toward your publication total. You can separate the numbers with commas, spaces, or new lines, and the order does not matter because the calculator sorts them for you.

No. The g-index summarizes citation counts for one author or list, but it does not account for field, career length, author position, self-citations, or why papers are cited. Treat it as one signal among several rather than a single score of research quality.