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Lost in citation: Vanishing visibility of senior authors

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Abstract

The senior author is usually last on the byline of scientific publications, yet generally has made the second most important contribution. The explosion in author number per scientific paper, has necessitated limits on the number of authors allowed in cited references, frequently resulting in senior author truncation. Would potential visibility gained from citations in top-tier journals be offset by senior author omission? We found evidence for this in a sample of 208 journals, showing significant associations between author limits in cited references and various measures of journal quality. These associations, however, differed among biological science, physical science, and interdisciplinary journals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Gertrude Case Buehring

  2. Department of Library and Information Science, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, USA

    Jessica E. Buehring

  3. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Experimental Statistics Unit, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, USA

    Patrick D. Gerard

Authors
  1. Gertrude Case Buehring
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  2. Jessica E. Buehring
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  3. Patrick D. Gerard
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Correspondence to Gertrude Case Buehring.

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Buehring, G.C., Buehring, J.E. & Gerard, P.D. Lost in citation: Vanishing visibility of senior authors. Scientometrics 72, 459–468 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1762-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1762-4

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