Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Feb 9:4:3.
doi: 10.1186/1745-6673-4-3.

Trend towards multiple authorship in occupational medicine journals

Sami Shaban #  1 , Tar-Ching Aw #  1
Affiliations

Trend towards multiple authorship in occupational medicine journals

Sami Shaban et al. J Occup Med Toxicol. .

Abstract

Background: There is an established trend towards an increasing number of authors per article in prestigious journals for medicine and health sciences. It is uncertain whether a similar trend occurs to the same extent in journals for specific medical specialties.

Methods: Journals focusing on occupational medicine were selected for analysis with regard to single or multiple-authorship per peer-reviewed paper. Data were collected from PubMed for publications between 1970 and 2007. These were analysed to calculate the average number of authors per multiple-author article per year and the percentage of single-author articles per year. The slope and average of these journals were then compared with that of previously studied non-occupational medicine journals.

Results: The results confirm a trend towards a linear increase in the average number of authors per article and a linear decrease in the percentage of single-author articles. The slope for the average number of authors for multiple-author articles was significantly higher in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine than in the other occupational medicine journals. Computational analysis of all articles published showed that Occupational Medicine (Oxford) had a significantly higher percentage of single-author articles than the other occupational medicine journals as well as major journals previously studied.

Conclusion: The same trend towards multiple authorship can be observed in medical specialty journals as in major journals for medicine and health sciences. There is a direct relationship between occupational journals with higher impact factors and a higher average number of authors per article in those journals.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Percentage of single-author articles and average authors per multiple-author articles for Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Percentage of single-author articles and average authors per multiple-author articles for Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Percentage of single-author articles and average authors per multiple-author articles for Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Percentage of single-author articles and average authors per multiple-author articles for International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Percentage of single-author articles and average authors per multiple-author articles for American Journal of Industrial Medicine.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Percentage of single-author articles and average authors per multiple-author articles for Occupational Medicine (Oxford).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Williams G, Hobbs R. Should we ditch impact factors? Br Med J. 2007;334:568–569. doi: 10.1136/bmj.39146.549225.BE. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Takahashi K, Aw TC, Koh D. An alternative to journal-based impact factors. Occ Med. 1999;49:57–58. doi: 10.1093/occmed/49.1.57-a. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Garfield E. Refining the computation of topic based impact factors – some suggestions. Occ Med. 1999;49:571. doi: 10.1093/occmed/49.8.571. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Brown H. How impact factors changed medical publishing – and science. Br Med J. 2007;334:561–564. doi: 10.1136/bmj.39142.454086.AD. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shaban S. Multiple authorship trends in prestigious journals from 1950 to 2005. Saudi Med J. 2007;28:927–932. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources