Kapoor Neena, Abola Matthew V, Jena Anupam B, Smith Stacy E
Division of Musculoskeletal Imaging and Intervention, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis St, Boston, MA 02115.
Department of Family Medicine, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio.
Acad Radiol. 2015 Dec;22(12):1587-91. doi: 10.1016/j.acra.2015.08.013. Epub 2015 Sep 26.
Concerns have been raised about authorship inflation in medical literature. The purpose of this study was to determine how the number of authors per radiology article has changed over time with regard to study type and geographic factors.
We collected data on study type, authorship count, and the country of the corresponding author for a sample of articles published in Radiology, American Journal of Roentgenology, and European Radiology in 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2013. Only original research and review articles were considered. We computed trends in the mean number of authors per article for each journal and compared authorship trends between study types and geographic region. The study did not involve human subjects and was therefore exempt from institutional board review at our institution.
A total of 682 articles were reviewed, of which 572 were original research articles (83.9%) and 110 review articles (16.1%). The overall number of authors per article doubled from 3.6 in 1980 to 7.3 in 2013 (P < .001). From 1990 to 2013, the largest absolute increase in authorship count was in Radiology (4.4-8.1, 84.1%, P < .001). The largest increase in authorship occurred in original research articles (3.7-7.8, 111%, P < .001). Although authorship counts were greatest in Asia over most study period, growth in authorship count was highest in Europe.
Authorship count has dramatically increased in radiology journals in the last 3 decades, particularly in original research articles and in Europe.
医学文献中的作者署名膨胀问题已引发关注。本研究旨在确定放射学文章的作者数量随时间推移在研究类型和地理因素方面的变化情况。
我们收集了1980年、1990年、2000年和2013年发表在《放射学》《美国放射学杂志》和《欧洲放射学》上的部分文章的研究类型、作者数量以及通讯作者所在国家的数据。仅纳入原创研究和综述文章。我们计算了每种期刊每篇文章作者平均数量的趋势，并比较了不同研究类型和地理区域之间的作者署名趋势。本研究不涉及人体受试者，因此在我们机构无需经过机构审查委员会的审查。
共审查了682篇文章，其中572篇为原创研究文章（83.9%），110篇为综述文章（16.1%）。每篇文章的作者总数从1980年的3.6人增加了一倍，至2013年达到7.3人（P <.001）。1990年至2013年，作者数量绝对增加最多的是《放射学》（从4.4人增至8.1人，增长84.1%，P <.001）。作者数量增加最多的是原创研究文章（从3.7人增至7.8人，增长111%，P <.001）。尽管在大多数研究时间段亚洲的作者数量最多，但作者数量增长最快的是欧洲。
在过去30年里，放射学期刊的作者数量显著增加，尤其是原创研究文章和欧洲地区。
