Is correspondence reflected in the author position? A bibliometric study of the relation between corresponding author and byline position

Bibliometric indicators are increasingly used to fund and evaluate scientific research. Since the number of authors in a paper and the number of has increased it is difficult to determine the individual contribution of authors. Suggested approaches include the study of author position or the corresponding author. Our findings show that the corresponding author is most likely to appear first and then last in the byline. The results are dependent on number of authors in a paper and national differences exist. This underscores the need to take into account both the number of authors on a paper and their position in the byline to be accurate when measuring author contribution.

[1]  Philip Ball,et al.  Index aims for fair ranking of scientists , 2005, Nature.

[2]  Pauline MattssonCarl.  Is correspondence reflected in the author position? A bibliometric study of the relation between corresponding author and byline position , 2011 .

[3]  D. Rennie,et al.  Disclosure of Researcher Contributions: A Study of Original Research Articles in The Lancet , 1999, Annals of Internal Medicine.

[4]  W. Eyler.  Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. , 1980, Canadian Medical Association journal.

[5]  An Old Bird,et al.  A Vexed Question , 1887, The Indian medical gazette.

[6]  K. Burman,et al.  "Hanging from the masthead": reflections on authorship. , 1982, Annals of internal medicine.

[7]  J. Drenth,et al.  Multiple authorship: the contribution of senior authors. , 1998, JAMA.

[8]  Raed N. Fahmy,et al.  The Order of Authorship , 1991 .

[9]  Michael Farrell.  The order of authorship. , 1991, JAMA.

[10]  R Bhopal,et al.  The vexed question of authorship: views of researchers in a British medical faculty , 1997, BMJ.

[11]  Michel Zitt,et al.  Science macro-indicators: some aspects of ost experience , 1996, Scientometrics.

[12]  G D Lundberg,et al.  The order of authorship: who's on first? , 1990, JAMA.

[13]  D. Rennie,et al.  When authorship fails. A proposal to make contributors accountable. , 1997, JAMA.

[14]  Patrick D. Gerard,et al.  Lost in citation: Vanishing visibility of senior authors , 2007, Scientometrics.

[15]  David Adam,et al.  Citation analysis: The counting house , 2002, Nature.

[16]  M. Shapiro,et al.  The contributions of authors to multiauthored biomedical research papers. , 1994, JAMA.

[17]  Veronica Yank,et al.  Disclosure of Researcher Contributions: A Study of Original Research Articles in The Lancet , 1999 .

[18]  R. Dellavalle,et al.  The write position , 2007, EMBO reports.

[19]  Amy M. Hightower,et al.  Science and Engineering Indicators , 1993 .

[20]  Donald Kennedy,et al.  Multiple Authors, Multiple Problems , 2003, Science.

[21]  T. Gaeta,et al.  Authorship: "Law" and order. , 1999, Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

[22]  Henk F. Moed,et al.  UK Research Assessment Exercises: Informed judgments on research quality or quantity? , 2008, Scientometrics.