Single-author publications among neurosurgeons in the United Kingdom

This study aimed to examine factors that may affect UK neurosurgeons' ability to publish single-author papers. These include demographic factors (e.g. gender, skin colour), biographical factors (e.g. whether they obtained a PhD or the ranking of the university from which they graduated or with which they are currently affiliated), and name characteristics.

Names of all neurosurgeons working in the UK in May 2023 were obtained from the Specialist Info website. Scopus was used to obtain bibliometrics. Publicly available online sources were used to obtain biographical and demographic information.

Approximately 1 out of 3 neurosurgeons had published at least one single-author paper. Of the 398 single-author papers published by the whole group of 384 neurosurgeons, 69 were open access, 44 were reviews, 64 were editorials, 71 were articles, and 219 were classified as 'other'. Their first single-author paper was published on average 15.2 years after medical school graduation and on average 9 years after their first publication (any author position). In 13 neurosurgeons their first-single author paper was a review, in 14 it was an editorial, in 24 an article, and in 57 it was classified as 'other'. The impact factor of the journal in which they published their first single-author paper was on average 11.1 (Median = 2.4). Single-author papers do not differ in number depending on gender or skin colour. However, there were more single-author publications among full professors, neurosurgeons who graduated from a top university for their medical degree, those who had a PhD, and those who are currently affiliated with a university. More senior neurosurgeons had more single-author publications. Neurosurgeons with more popular forenames, whose full name's perceived ethnicity was UK/Irish or had longer consonant sequences in their surname had more single-author papers.

This is the first study to thoroughly examine single-author publications in a group of medical professionals and examine whether they are associated with certain socio-demographic and name characteristics.