A critical reassessment of inferred relations between multiple authorship, scientific collaboration, the production of papers and their acceptance for publication

It is argued that this finding indicates the need for the exercise of more extensive qualification when drawing inferences about actual social aspects of research activity, from trends in the multiple authorship of published papers.

Abstract

There have recently been completed a number of studies which analyse and interpret trends in multiple authorship for scientific papers. This paper presents data which show that a significant relationship exists between levels of multiple authorship for papers submitted to a leading Astronomy journal, and their frequency of acceptance for publication. It is argued that this finding indicates the need for the exercise of more extensive qualification when drawing inferences about actual social aspects of research activity, from trends in the multiple authorship of published papers.