Decision making on authorship in the plastic, reconstructive and hand surgery literature: The opinions of corresponding authors

Matawlie, Roshni H.S.; Awadhpersad, Preshant S.; Gadjradj, Pravesh S.

doi:10.1016/j.bjps.2020.02.018

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Gift authorship (inclusion of an individual who does not meet authorship criteria) and coercive authorship (authorship taken by individuals wielding their seniority or supervisory status over junior investigators) may be contributors to increased authorship 24–26 . These phenomena have been reported in academic plastic surgery, 27,28 despite journal policies limiting authorship or requirements to specify each author's contribution. There may also be a reduction in ghost authorship (omission of an individual who contributed in part to the manuscript) 29 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Many Plastic Surgeons Does It Take to Write an Article? A 10-Year Bibliometric Analysis of Authorship Inflation

2023

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BackgroundPublications measure academic productivity; they can affect research funding and career trajectory. There is a trend of increased authors per publication in surgery journals. We sought to determine whether authorship inflation exists in the plastic surgery literature and identify independent predictors of the number of co-authors.MethodsWe performed a bibliometric analysis of articles published in 3 high impact plastic surgery journals at 2-year intervals between 2010 and 2020. For each publication, we collected details on year of publication, article type, plastic surgery topic, gender of senior author, geographical origin of study, and the number of authors.ResultsA total of 5593 articles were collected. The median number of authors per article increased over time (ρ = 0.20, P < 0.001). Cohort studies, basic science investigations, literature reviews, and systematic reviews experienced a significant increase in the number of authors per article from 2010 to 2020 (P < 0.001). The rise in the number of authors was consistent across all plastic surgery topics (P < 0.001). Both male and female senior authors had a significant increase in the number of co-authors (P < 0.001). The regression model demonstrated that article type (cohort studies, basic science investigations, and systematic reviews) predicted more co-authors, whereas geographical region (Africa, Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and United Kingdom and Ireland) and plastic surgery topics (aesthetic and hand surgery) predicted fewer authors.ConclusionsThe number of authors per publication is increasing in plastic surgery. Author proliferation was consistent across most article types and unaffected by gender. Possible reasons behind this trend include research complexity, increased collaboration, or gift authorship.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%