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Changes in authorship patterns in prestigious US medical journals
William B Weeks1, Amy E Wallace, B C Surott Kimberly
1Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH, USA. william.b.weeks@dartmouth.edu
Social Science & Medicine (1982)
|August 18, 2004
Summary
Authorship in medical journals increased significantly from 1980 to 2000, with group authorship rising sharply. This trend reflects the growing complexity of medical research and collaboration.
Area of Science:
- Medical Publishing
- Scientific Communication
- Research Collaboration
Background:
- Medical journal editors developed authorship criteria to identify manuscript contributors.
- Some journals began specifying acceptable author numbers per manuscript.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine changes in authorship patterns between 1980 and 2000.
- To analyze trends in author numbers and group/corporate authorship in leading medical journals.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective cohort study design.
- Analysis of original, scientific, non-serial articles from four major medical journals (1980-2000).
- Calculation of average authors per manuscript and prevalence of group/corporate authorship.
Main Results:
- Average authors per article increased from 4.5 (1980) to 6.9 (2000).
- Group authorship rose from near zero to over 15% of manuscripts.
- Single-authored manuscripts became nearly obsolete; corporate authorship remained rare.
Conclusions:
- The number of authors per manuscript has dramatically increased.
- The rise in group authorship likely reflects increasing medical research complexity.
- Authorship practices have evolved significantly in response to publishing norms and research trends.