[Sigmetrics] The scaling relationship between citation-based performance and co-authorship patterns in natural sciences

[Sylvan Katz]

The scaling relationship between citation-based performance and 
co-authorship patterns in natural sciences


The aim of this paper is to extend our knowledge about the power-law 
relationship between citation-based performance and co-authorship 
patterns in papers in the natural sciences. We analyzed 829,924 articles 
that received 16,490,346 citations. The number of articles published 
through co-authorship accounts for 89%. The citation-based performance 
and co-authorship patterns exhibit a power-law correlation with a 
scaling exponent of 1.20 ± 0.07. Citations to a subfield's research 
articles tended to increase 2^1.20 or 2.30 times each time it doubled 
the number of coauthored papers. The scaling exponent for the power-law 
relationship for single-authored papers was 0.85 ± 0.11. The citations 
to a subfield's single-authored research articles increased 2^0.85 or 
1.89 times each time the research area doubled the number of 
single-authored papers. The Matthew Effect is stronger for coauthored 
papers than for single-authored. In fact, with a scaling exponent <1.0 
the impact of single-authored papers exhibits a cumulative disadvantage 
or inverse Matthew Effect.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.23759/abstract

-- 
Sylvan Katz
Associate Faculty
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/sylvank/