Leaders of academic institutions evaluate academic productivity when deciding to 
hire, promote, or award resources. This study examined the distribution of the 
h-index, an assessment of academic standing, among radiation oncologists. The 
authors collected h-indices for 826 US academic radiation oncologists from a 
commercial bibliographic database (SCOPUS, Elsevier B.V., NL). Then, logarithmic 
transformation was performed on h-indices and ranked h-indices, and results were 
compared to estimates of a power law distribution. The h-index frequency 
distribution conformed to both the log-linear variation of a power law (r 
(2) = .99) and the beta distribution with the same fitting exponents as 
previously described in a power law analysis of the productivity of 
neurosurgeons. Within radiation oncology, as in neurosurgery, there are 
exceedingly more faculty with an h-index of 1-2. The distribution fitting the 
same variation of a power law within two fields suggests applicability to other 
areas of academia.