hyper and probably over-prolific scientific authors (Nature article)

dear friends

Nature reported in Dec.2023 that up to four times more researchers pump out more than 60 papers a year than less than a decade ago. Saudi Arabia and Thailand saw the sharpest uptick in the number of such scientists over the past few years, according to a preprint posted on bioRxiv on 24 November.

In non-Physics fields during 2022 specifically, the countries with the highest number of EP authors were China (n=303), USA (n=124), Saudi Arabia (n=69), Italy (n=62), Germany (n=58), India (n=51), UK (n=47), Australia (n=47), Japan (n=35), Canada (n=28), Iran (n=26), South Korea (n=26), Spain (n=23), Netherlands (n=20), Taiwan (n=19), Thailand (n=19), Pakistan (n=17), Denmark (n=15), Malaysia (n=14), France (n-14), Russia (n=13), Singapore (n=12), Hong Kong (n=11), and Switzerland (n=7). Compared to 2016, most countries had 1.5-4-fold increases in the numbers of EP authors, but several countries had much higher increases: Thailand 19-fold (19 vs. 1), Saudi Arabia 11.5-fold (69 vs. 6), Spain 11.5-fold (23 vs. 2), India 10.2-fold (51 vs. 5), Italy 6.9-fold (62 vs. 9), Russia 6.5-fold (13 vs. 2), Pakistan 5.7-fold (17 vs. 3), South Korea 5.2-fold (26 vs. 5). The number of EP authors in these 8 countries with rapidly rising numbers in each year during 2000-2022 is shown in Figure 2 of the Johannis paper posted on bioRxiv on 24 November. BAD NEWS!   Italy is second in the world after South Arabia in terms of the number of extremely prolific authors who are worrying in terms of growth.  Followed by India, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Pakistan and Russia.

Regardless of the exact of mix of genuine productivity, spurious authorship standards, and outright unethical research practices [22], EP authors appear to enjoy high success in terms in citation impact, especially when raw citation counts are considered. 44% of the most-cited authors across science in terms of raw citations are EP authors. This suggests that counting citations without adjusting for co-authorship patterns may be highly problematic. 

The increase in these ‘extremely productive’ authors raises concerns that some researchers are resorting to dubious methods to publish extra papers.

Publishing with integrity says that 22 authors have already published in 2024 more than 200 papers, meaning more than 2 a day, excluding weekends!   https://x.com/fake_journals/status/1802151185480307132

Regards

Mike