Trend toward multiple authorship: Update and extension.

Abstract

Strahan (1982) noted a trend toward multiple authorship in Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP) articles. In the present study, this work was updated by including data from the last 5 years. Strahan's work was also extended by using every year of publication, calculating ratios of authors to articles, and including all but the first of the initial 13 volumes of The Counseling Psychologist (TCP). I conclude that the trend toward multiple authorship in JCP may be leveling off, although more time is needed for this assessment. There is a similar trend for TCP, although it is less pronounced. Reasons for the trend in both journals arc explored. Strahan (1982) noted that between the years 1954andl979, there was a trend toward multiple authorship in Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP) articles. He found that the percentage of articles with more than one author rose from a low of 19.6% in 1959 to a high of 76.7% in 1979. He showed that the raw number of single-author articles remained relatively constant from 1954 to 1974 but that the corresponding pecentage decreased because of a larger number of published articles in later years.Over (1982) and Sacco and Milana (1984) found a trend toward multiple authorship in several other journals of the American Psychological Association (APA) as well. Over (1982) found that between 1959 and 1979, the ratio of authors to articles rose more for JCP than did the ratio for 12 other APA journals. Gladding (1984) discovered that this ratio also increased for articles published in the Personnel and Guidance Journal (now called the Journal of Counseling and Development) between 1971. Broad (1981 noted an increase in the percentage of multiple-author articles in most of the sciences, indicating that the trend is not unique to psychology. Broad commented, however, that in different fields, there are widely varying percentages of articles with two or more authors.For the present article, I expanded Strahan's (1982) work in four ways. First, I extended the data by looking at the years 1980 through 1985. Second, rather than recording the number of authors per article for only every fifth year, I recorded the data for every year. By then grouping the data by 4-year periods, I attenuated random fluctuations caused by unusual circumstances in a given year.Third, in addition to looking at percentages of articles written by a given number of persons, I computed the ratio of authors to articles for each 4-year period. Fourth, I analyzed all but the first of the 13 volumes (1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974)(1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985) of The Counseling Psychologist (TCP) in a similar fashion. Although many articles in TCP have been written by invitation, I expected an increase in multiple-author articles.I would like to thank Linda Subich for her helpful suggestions on an earlier version of this article.

Authorship Ethics: Issues and Suggested Guidelines for the Helping Professions

“…For example, Gladding reviewed articles published from 1971 through 1982 in The Personnel and Guidance Journal to determine whether there was an increase in multiple-authored articles through the years, and indeed such a trend was noted. Zook (1987) and Strahan also noted the same trend in the Journal of Counseling Psychology. According to Holaday and Yost, the likelihood that there will be controversy pertaining to the credit given to authors and the ordering of their names may increase when the number of collaborators increases.…”

“…Although it appears necessary to follow minimal codes of ethics regarding authorship, consideration of suggested guidelines and aspirational ethics may enhance the professional growth of mental health professionals and students in mental health programs. P ublishing research is a vital undertaking for mental health professionals (Fine & Kurdek, 1993;Holaday & Yost, 1995;Jones, 1999;Spiegel & Keith-Spiegel, 1970, Winston, 1985Zook, 1987). According to Garfield (1978), in the past, authorship credit was not an issue when most articles were written by one author.…”

Faculty-Student Collaboration: Issues and Recommendations

“…Faculty-student collaboration as the major focus (Fine & Kurdek, 1993;Netting & Nichols-Casebolt, 1997;Over, 1982) or as part of discussions on collaboration (Austin & Baldwin, 1991;Krysik & Nichols-Casebolt, 1994), mentorship (Wright & Wright, 1987), and multiple authorship Zook, 1987) has received limited attention across the disciplines. Discussions of collaboration and coauthorship between colleagues of equal or unequal rank has dominated the literature.…”

Authorship Credit and Ethical Guidelines

“…Several researchers reported a strong 2D-year trend toward increasing the number of authors for a single article (Mendenhall & Higbee, 1982;Over, 1982;Sacco & Milana, 1984;Strahan, 1982). More recently this trend has stabilized (the same numbers of authors per article, no increase or decrease), but multiauthored work is common (Holaday & Yost, 1994;Zook, 1987).…”

“…Projects initiated through collegial conversations between individuals at different institutions or through networking and mentoring within professional organizations have led to multidisciplinary projects (Gladding, 1984;Strahan, 1982). Zook (1987) reported a tendency toward more articles with several authors in journals that emphasize empirical rather than theoretical work and a willingness to give credit to student helpers and graduate research assistants when appropriate.…”