Authorship in library acquisitions: Practice & theory

Abstract

Authorship in Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory, volume 1, number 1 (January 1977) through volume 19, number 4 (Winter 1995) is analyzed. A literature review identifies numerous other studies of authorship patterns in library and information science (LIS) journals. This study's major findings are: 80.6% of LAPT authors contributed a single article, while 3.9% wrote four or more; 15.6% of the articles were collaboratively written by two or more authors; 65.4% of LAPT authors were academic librarians and 10.6% were vendors; a majority (53.9%) were male, but longitudinal analysis shows an increasing portion of female authors; and 15.3% of LAPT authors were from outside the U.S. Comparisons are made with other LIS journals and explanations for the findings are briefly speculated upon.