Radiology journal authorship counts doubled since 1980
Authorship counts have dramatically increased in radiology journals in the last 35 years, according to findings published in Academic Radiology.
The results could raise questions about authorship inflation in medical literature, according to the study.
The researchers 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.
Of the 682 articles reviewed, 572 were original research articles (83.9 percent) and 110 were review articles (16.1 percent). The overall number of authors per article doubled from 3.6 in 1980 to 7.3 in 2013. The largest increase in authorship occurred in original research articles (3.7 to 7.8, 111 percent).
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Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.