The Kardashian Index (K-Index), named after Kim Kardashian, is a measure of the discrepancy between a scientist's social media profile and publication record. Proposed in 2014, the measure compares the number of followers a research scientist has on Twitter to the number of citations they have for their peer-reviewed work.
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Definition
The relationship between the number of Twitter followers (
The Kardashian Index is thus calculated as:
where
Interpretation
A high K-index indicates an over-blown scientific fame while a low K-index suggests that a scientist is being undervalued. According to the author, researchers whose K-index > 5 can be considered 'Science Kardashians'.
Criticism
The K-index suggests that the number of citations of a given scientist is comparable to his or her scientific value. This assumption has been criticized.