Who is the ”Platz-Hirsch“ of the German Economics Profession?

Summary In this paper, we investigate the informational content of citation-based research evaluations. To illustrate our analysis we refer to the 2005 Handelsblatt ranking of German academic economists. We make extensive use of the recently developed Hirsch-index and relate citation incidence to publication success, career age, and the topicality of the individual researchers’ field of specialization. We arrive at the conclusion that citation-based indicators provide a very incomplete picture of research performance. To obtain acceptable bibliometric research evaluations, citation based indicators need to be complemented with indicators that measure publication success more directly.