In the November/December issue of Science Watch, Thomson Scientific has analysed data from its Thomson Science Indicators to evaluate the number of papers with more than 50, 100, 200 and 500 authors between the years 1993 to 2006. Science Watch, Thomson Scientifics' subscription newsletter, uses unique citation data to provide rankings, interviews and reports on today's most significant science.
According to the study, the numbers of scientific papers published with more than 50, 100, 200 and 500 authors plateaued from 2000 to 2003, and then experienced a sharp increase in 2005. That year, each group reached its all-time highest levels. More than 750 papers with 50 or more authors were published in 2005, compared with a little over 500 the previous year. Papers with more than 100 authors grew by more than 50 percent from just over 300 in 2003 to an impressive 475 in 2005. Interestingly, papers with 500 or more authors increased from 40 in 2003 to 131 in 2005. This group saw the largest jump of all - a 200 percent increase.
While 2005 saw great leaps in the total number of multiauthor papers, most of the totals for the assorted groupings of multiauthor papers showed a decline during 2006 - the most recent year of available data.
To convey the general makeup of recent multiauthor papers, Thomson Scientific divided the papers with more than 100 authors into two main categories - physical sciences and biomedicine. The physical science group increased its volume by 144 in 2005 to total 393. The majority of these papers were in the main field of physics. Meanwhile, the number of biomedicine papers with 100 or more authors declined from 41 in 2004 to 19 in 2006.
The study also highlights individual papers that had the highest number of authors. In 1987, a paper with 200 authors took the prize, and each year has seen the winning number increase. While in 2000, the most-multiauthored paper had 918 contributors, the paper taking top honors in 2006 had 2,512 authors.
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