H-INDEX 20: A MILESTONE I NEVER EXPECTED

Today, while checking my Google Scholar profile, I noticed something that made me pause for a moment.

My H-index has reached 20.

To be honest, when I first started my academic journey, I never imagined I would get here. I believe at the moment I have the highest H-index in my department for GIS field of study.

Some people may say that an H-index of 20 is not particularly high. In certain disciplines, it might even be considered modest. But for me, and for the field that I work in, it is a meaningful milestone.

The research areas I have been involved in, we were once considered highly specialised and niche. The community was relatively small, and naturally, there were not many researchers working on similar topics.

Sometimes it felt like being a minority within an already small minority.

Publishing was not always easy. Finding collaborators was not always easy. Convincing others of the value of certain research directions was not always easy.

But we kept going.

Over the years, I have been fortunate to work with many wonderful students, colleagues, collaborators, and mentors. Every paper, citation, discussion, supervision session, conference presentation, and research project contributed to this journey.

So this milestone does not belong to me alone.

It belongs to everyone who has contributed, collaborated, cited our work, challenged our ideas, and helped shape the research community that exists today.

What makes me happiest is not the number itself.

It is seeing how much the community has grown.

Topics that once attracted only a handful of researchers are now receiving increasing attention. New ideas are emerging, new collaborations are being formed, and the research landscape has become far more vibrant and exciting than when I first entered the field.

I am grateful to have witnessed that growth and even more grateful to have played a small part in it.

Thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey.

Now, back to work. There are still many interesting questions waiting to be explored.

#ResearchJourney #GoogleScholar #HIndex20 #Geoinformatics #AcademicLife