LUCKNOW, July 28 -- The Lucknow University's push to build a research culture is now yielding results as its h-index, a metric that measures research productivity and its impact, has registered a consistent growth over the last five years with the sharpest jump in 2025-26. According to data from Scopus indexed journals, the university's h-index stood at 101 in 2019-20. It rose to 109 in 2022-23, 118 in 2023-24 and 119 in 2024-25. In 2025-26, the university recorded an h-index of over 130. This means more than 130 research papers were cited at least 130 times each. University officials described the jump as quite significant for an institution focused on expanding its research base. The h-index measures both the volume and citation impact of research. To calculate it, a researcher's or institution's publications are ranked by citations in descending order. The h-index is the point where the number of citations matches or exceeds the paper's rank. This ensures the metric is not inflated by one viral paper or diluted by many papers with little impact. Vice chancellor Prof JP Saini said the rise largely reflects growth in the science faculties as Scopus journals predominantly cover fundamental sciences. "The key contributor to the increase in h-index, showing the university's orientation towards research, is the increase in the number of research papers published by various science faculties," he said. He also said the numbers point to quality. "The h-index also shows that the research publications were of such high quality that they could be cited several times," the VC noted. Another factor behind the growth, he said, is faculty expansion. Over the last few years, the university has increased its teaching and research staff which has directly added to research output and collaborations. The improved h-index comes at a time when the university is trying to position itself as a research-driven institution. Officials said the focus now is on sustaining the momentum by encouraging interdisciplinary projects and pushing more faculty and research scholars to publish in high-impact journals....