Multiple authorship, basic research, and other trends in the emergency medicine literature (1975 to 1986)

As emergency medicine comes of age, it is interesting to examine the scientific nature of the specialty as reflected in the literature. Representative volumes of three emergency medicine journals were reviewed for number and type of article, institutional origin, article length, and number of authors. For Annals of Emergency Medicine, (AEM) volumes for 1975, 1980, and 1985 were studied. For The American Journal of Emergency Medicine (AJEM) and The Journal of Emergency Medicine (JEM), articles from the first 12 months of publication (1983 to 1984) and the complete 1986 issue were examined. Analysis of the scientific sections of the journals discloses some interesting trends. While the average article length has remained about the same (four to six pages), the average number of authors per article has steadily risen. The percentage of articles listing an academic origin has remained steady in AEM and JEM, but has risen in AJEM. Multicenter collaborations and basic science articles are appearing with significantly increased frequency. A noteworthy trend is the rise in multiple authorship of articles. There have been significant p less than 10(-4] increases in the number of multiple-authored (more than three authors) articles in AEM and JEM. As reflected by the literature, scientific progress in EM is maintaining a rapid pace. However, there are increasing numbers of papers with multiple authors. Listing of multiple authors on papers has prompted criticism of the literature in other medical specialties. If this trend continues, there may be a risk of compromising the integrity of the published research.