ABS: King, How many neurosurgeons does it take to write a research article? Authorship proliferation in neurosurgical research

[Gretchen Whitney]

Author's E-mail : J.T. King, Jr. : jtk1 at pitt.edu

TITLE   :       How many neurosurgeons does it take to write a research
article? Authorship proliferation in neurosurgical research
AUTHOR  King JT
JOURNAL NEUROSURGERY 47: (2) 435-440 AUG 2000

 Document type: Article    Language: English    Cited References: 40
Times Cited: 0


Abstract:
OBJECTIVE: Authorship proliferation in biomedical research has become
rampant; the proportion of single-author articles is
decreasing, the percentage of multiauthor articles is increasing, and the
number of authors per publication is increasing. To
determine whether authorship trends in the North American neurosurgical
literature parallel trends observed in other areas of the
biomedical literature, I studied original neurosurgical research articles
published in the past 50 years.

METHODS: I sampled clinical, anatomic, and laboratory investigations in
Neurosurgery and the Journal of Neurosurgery at
10-year intervals from 1945 to 1995. For each research article, I determined
the number of authors, the countries of origin, and
the educational degrees of the authors.

RESULTS: The mean number of authors per article has increased steadily in
the past 50 years, from 1.8 (standard deviation,
+/-0.8) authors per article in 1945 to 4.6 (standard deviation, +/-2.1)
authors in 1995. The proportion of single-author articles is
decreasing; these articles accounted for 43% of articles in 1945 and only 3%
of articles in 1995. Increases in the proportions of
non-M.D. authors and of articles originating outside the United States were
also observed.

CONCLUSION: The proliferation of multiauthor articles and the decrease in
the proportion of single-author articles in the
neurosurgical literature parallel trends observed in many other areas of
biomedical research. Possible explanations include larger
research teams, variable or absent journal criteria for defining authorship,
and the increased awarding of "gift" authorships.

Author Keywords:
authorship, bibliometrics, neurosurgery, research

KeyWords Plus:
MULTIPLE AUTHORSHIP, CITATION ANALYSIS, JOURNALS, COAUTHORSHIP, TRENDS,
PUBLICATIONS,
FREQUENCY, PUBLISH, PERISH, TOOL

Addresses:
King JT, Univ Pittsburgh, Dept Neurol Surg, 200 Lothrop St, B-400 PUH,
Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA.
Univ Pittsburgh, Dept Neurol Surg, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA.
VA Pittsburgh Healthcare Syst, Neurosurg Sect, Pittsburgh, PA USA.
VA Pittsburgh Healthcare Syst, Ctr Hlth Serv Res, Pittsburgh, PA USA.
Univ Pittsburgh, Ctr Res Hlth Care, Dept Med, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA.

Publisher:
LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS, PHILADELPHIA

IDS Number:
339WZ

ISSN:
0148-396X

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