Supplementary Data for "The N-index: Measuring a Prestige-Based Dimension of Scientific Achievement"

All original datasets used in this study are provided as supplementary files in machine-readable formats (CSV/XLSX). They are listed below with brief descriptions: The repository includes journal-level NF values, author-position distributions, N-contribution weights, and author-level N-index outputs, along with files used for validation and comparative analyses. a1. Nobel laureates’ publications (2025) This dataset contains publication records of Nobel laureates in Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology or Medicine from 1980 to 2025, restricted to publications prior to each laureate’s award year. It includes article-level bibliographic metadata used to compute the Nobel Factor (NF). Content: Raw publication data and the step-by-step workflow for NF calculation. a2. N-factor 2025 This file reports the results of Nobel Factor (NF) calculations for journals across five reference windows. The original w0 window covers all available data up to 2025 with a historically cumulative denominator. The present study introduces four methodologically refined windows in which both the numerator and denominator are computed over the same period, eliminating the structural asymmetry of the original formulation: w1 (1980–2025), w2 (1990–2025), w3 (2000–2025), and w4 (2010-2025). Content: Journal-level NF scores for each of the five windows, representing the historical concentration of Nobel-class research within journals under each temporal configuration. a3. Author position distribution (2025) This dataset summarizes the distribution of author positions (first, middle, last) in Nobel laureates’ pre-award publications. Content: Frequency tables used to compare empirical by line patterns with the N-contribution model. a4. Differences This file compares empirical author-position distributions with the theoretical weights produced by the N-contribution model. Content: Error and difference statistics by author count, used to validate model fit. a5. InCites ranking with laureate matching This file contains the list of 50,000 InCites researcher ranking from Clarivate InCites, ranked by total citation count, with Nobel Prize laureate matching results appended for the reference window (w2). Each researcher entry includes bibliometric attributes (citation count, h-index, CNCI, institutional affiliation) alongside laureate-match indicators for each window. Content: Researcher-level citation rankings and window-specific laureate-match flags, used to compute and compare laureate coverage rates of citation-based indicators across temporal configurations. a6. h-index list (Clarivate InCites) with laureate matching This file contains the list of 10,000 highly ranked researchers by h-index from Clarivate InCites, with Nobel Prize laureate matching results appended for the reference window (w2). Each entry includes h-index values (with and without self-citations), citation counts, and institutional affiliation, alongside window-specific laureate-match indicators. Content: Researcher-level h-index rankings and window-specific laureate-match flags, used to compute and compare laureate coverage rates of h-index rankings across temporal configurations. a7. RDS with laureate matching This file contains the ranked list of 674,199 researchers by N-index computed under the Role-differentiated Scheme (RDS) weighting model using the w2 reference window (1990–2025, C1-C4 journal subsets), with Nobel Prize laureate matching results appended. The RDS assigns double weight to first and last authors relative to middle authors, following the rank-dependent fractional counting convention documented in Lukovits and Vinkler (1995). The file structure mirrors a8, enabling direct comparison of RDS and LDS ranking outcomes. Content: Full researcher-level N-index rankings under the RDS configuration (w2), used for comparative coverage analyses. a8. LDS with laureate matching This file contains the ranked list of 610,565 researchers by N-index computed under the LDS weighting model using the w2 reference window (1990–2025, C1-C4 journal subsets), with Nobel Prize laureate matching results appended. Each entry includes researcher name, journal count, number of authored papers, and N-index score, alongside a laureate-match indicator showing the laureate’s award year where applicable. Content: Full researcher-level N-index rankings under the primary configuration (LDS, w2), serving as the reference dataset for coverage analyses. a9. Data for scoring This dataset documents intermediate steps used to compute the N-index from NF and the N-contribution (author-position) weights. Content: Variables, intermediate tables, and parameters required for deriving N-index values. a10. N-index of Nobel laureates This file provides cumulative N-index scores for individual Nobel laureates computed using pre-award publications, disaggregated by two reference windows (RDS & LDS) and three Nobel Prize fields (Chemistry, Medicine, Physics). Content: Laureate-level average N-index scores by weighting scheme (RDS & LDS) and reference window, along with field-level summary statistics (mean, maximum, minimum, and count), enabling cross-window and cross-scheme comparison of laureate N-index profiles. The repository also contains additional reference materials (a0 and Tables 6–8) that are not directly cited in the manuscript but are provided for completeness and transparency. All supplementary files are provided to ensure transparency and reproducibility of results. They allow other researchers to replicate the analyses and explore extensions such as recalculating NF/N-index under different time windows or weighting schemes. This version includes substantial revisions and extended analyses prepared for submission to Scientometrics.