Authorship patterns in theory based versus research based journals

Abstract

This article examines authorship pattern in two theory based journals, one American and one Canadian. Data were collected on the number of single, double, and multiple authors from 1955 to 1994 inEducational Theory and from 1970 to 1994 in theJournal of Educational Thought. The years were, in turn, divided into eight and five five-year intervals respectively. Frequencies and percentages were generated for each interval and chi-squares were computed between intervals and overall. In addition, author/article ratios were calculated for each year forEducational Theory. Results revealed that the majority of authorships were single in both journals regardless of the date of publication. These findings further challenge de Solla Price's predictions that co-and multiple authorships would eventually outnumber single authorships. The failure to distinguish between journal type and to allow for discrepancies within disciplines raises new concerns about conclusions drawn, to date, in the literature.