Authorship patterns in life sciences, preclinical basic and clinical research papers

Abstract

The present paper examines the multiple authorship in research papers in biomedical sciences from the more basic aspects to clinically oriented research. Seventeen journals were chosen for analysis — nine from the general and life sciences categories and eight from medical sciences group with clinical orientation. All these were “high impact” journals as per the Science Citation Index and come in the top ten journals in their respective desciplines. The average authors/paper was significantly higher (P<0.001) in medical journals −4.299 (range 3.21–5.35) as compared to general biomedical journals −3.298 (range 3.21–5.35). Data from highly cited papers (1961–78) also indicate that papers in clinical sciences have higher average authors (2.71) as compared to preclinical basic research (2.25: P<0.26) and more basic research areas like biochemistry and molecular biology (2.208; P<0.02). The team size in research in clinical subjects is therefore appreciably larger as compared to basic biomedical sciences. Also the general and biomedical sciences articles were relatively longer (average 7.75 pages; range 2.69–10.07) as compared to medical papers with a clinical orientation (avarage 4.24 pages; range 1.80–12.92; P<0.001).