There has been a rising trend in multiple authorship in several fields of scientific
literature. We conducted a study to evaluate the changing trends in the international
contribution and authorship of articles within the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (PRS) and the British Journal of Plastic Surgery (BJPS, now Journal of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery) over the last 50 years.
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References
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 10, 2007
Footnotes
☆This work has been accepted for presentation at the British Association of Plastic Surgeons, Summer Meeting 2006.
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Copyright
© 2007 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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- Discussion of ‘How many plastic surgeons does it take to write a research article?’Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic SurgeryVol. 61Issue 3
- PreviewDurani and coworkers analysed the mean number of authors per article in this journal and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery between 1955 and 2005. They only studied ‘journal articles’ and specifically excluded letters to the editor. They noted that ‘the proportion of articles with six or more authors increased significantly over time, particularly between 1985 and 2005’. Unbeknownst to these researchers, Frank McDowell, who reigned as editor of that journal from 1967 to 1979, railed against multiple authorship.
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- Authorship in surgical articlesJournal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic SurgeryVol. 73Issue 5
- PreviewMany question the validity of authorship allocation, with studies confirming an increasing number of authors per article in surgery over time, particularly in plastic surgery.1 Several factors have been attributed to this, including increased complexity and collaborations, and the inherently competitive nature of the speciality, rendering publications a necessity in the curriculum vitae.2 Cynics have suggested that ‘guest authorship’, inclusion of an individual not meeting the authorship criteria, is a contributory factor secondary to the pressures of ‘publish or perish’.
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