The internal dynamics of journals’ h-cores over time

The objective of this article is to study, empirically, the evolution of the h-indexes of academic journals and the internal dynamics of their h-core and h²-core over time. The h-indexes describe a situation at a given moment in time; they are dynamic indicators.As citations grow over time, the h-index and the h-core grow.In this paper, the composition of the h-core over time is analyzed with an example of practical application, based on data from the Journal of Business Ethics, and complemented with three other journals. The results show how the composition of the h-core varies over time. As the h-index yearly expands, new additional articles enter the h-core, while other articles disappear to make room for newcomers. Only those articles remain that sustain a citation growth rate with an average around the average growth rate of the h-index. In a mature journal, as in our example, it takes a few years to enter the h-core, generally about ten years.A similar entry and exit phenomenon also appears at the level of the h²-core and h³- core, which remain more stable.The ha-core also has a dynamic evolution where new entrants arrive more quickly, which confirms the advantage of the ha-index that acknowledges potential papers earlier