Available via license: CC BY 4.0
Content may be subject to copyright.
Article
Bibliometric Study of Authorship Pattern Literature
Deep Kumar Kirtania
Librarian, Bankura Sammilani College
deepkrlis@gmail.com
Abstract: The main objective of this study is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of scholarly publica-
tions of Authorship Pattern. The present study covers 1723 research papers published in the area of
authorship pattern and indexed in Scopus database from the year 2013 to 2022. These research pub-
lications considered for the present study have been analysed based on their year wise growth, pat-
tern of authorship, times citations, type of publication, most productive publication source as well
as countries and institutions. The study shows the positive growth of the literatures with collabora-
tive authorship pattern and good citation status. This original research paper will be helpful to the
researchers of library and information science, especially who are working in the area of bibliomet-
rics studies.
Keywords: Bibliometric Analysis; Authorship Pattern; Authorship Study; Collaborative Author-
ship; Degree of Collaboration; Scopus
Introduction
Authorship study is a type of bibliometric analysis that focuses on examining the
patterns and characteristics of authorship in scholarly publications (Khaparde & Pawar,
2013). This includes analysing the number of authors per publication, author affiliations,
author collaborations, author productivity, and author impact (Mahapatra, 2002). In au-
thorship studies, bibliometric techniques are used to analyse large datasets of scholarly
publications to identify patterns and trends related to authorship (Bandyopadhyay, 2001).
In recent years, most of the research has been conducted jointly for the overall growth of
information communication technology worldwide (Patra, Bhattacharya & Verma, 2006;
Kirtania, 2021). This collaboration pattern may have one to multiple authors, and may
involve domestic or international researchers from any organization in the country, start-
ing with colleagues from the same organization (Kirtania & Chakrabarti, 2018). In recent
times, there has been a lot of work on authorship patterns, but the current status of exist-
ing publications on authorship pattern, growth, times cited, core publication source
should be analyzed. This is done in the present paper, with the help of bibliometric anal-
ysis, as bibliometric analysis is a quantitative research method that involves the use of
statistical and computational techniques to analyze the characteristics and patterns of
scholarly publications (Patra, Bhattacharya & Verma, 2006).
Objectives
The objectives of this study are:
• to examine the year wise growth of the publications. and their citations.
• to trace out the authorship pattern of these publications and
• to analyse the citation count, type of publications, most productive affiliated in-
stitutes and country of the publications.
Methodology
Scope & Coverage: This study covers 1723 research publications on “authorship pat-
tern” and indexed in Scopus database from 2013 to 2022.
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions, and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and
contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting
from any ideas, methods, instructions, or products referred to in the content.
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 7 April 2023 doi:10.20944/preprints202304.0109.v1
© 2023 by the author(s). Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY license.
2 of 5
Method Used: First, the Scopus database was searched for publications using the
term "authorship pattern," and then the papers from the ten-year period of 2013 to 2022
were retrieved by applying data filtering to the results. As a result of the query and filter-
ing, 1723 papers on authorship pattern were found and selected for the present study.
Each publication was then assessed for bibliographic data collection, such as year of pub-
lication, number of authors, affiliated country and institute, times cited, and type of pub-
lication. The raw data were collected, stored, organized, and presented separately in MS-
Excel. The data were then tabulated, analysed and interpreted to draw final conclusions.
Data Analysis and Findings
Table1: Year wise distribution of publications.
Year
Documents
Percentage
% Change
2013
114
6.62
N/A
2014
118
6.85
3.39
2015
129
7.49
8.53
2016
158
9.17
18.35
2017
139
8.07
-13.67
2018
156
9.05
10.90
2019
197
11.43
20.81
2020
212
12.30
7.08
2021
310
17.99
31.61
2022
190
11.03
-63.16
Total
1723
100.00
N/A
Figure 1: Publication Growth of the Authorship Pattern.
Literature Growth: Table 1 describes the year-wise distribution of publications re-
lated to authorship patterns. It can be seen that a total of 1723 research papers have been
published on authorship patterns in the ten years from 2013 to 2022, which is statistically
significant. Looking at the year-on-year publication growth (Figure 1), it is easy to see a
positive trend (y = 15.618x + 86.4). In terms of individual year-wise publications, 310
articles were published in 2021, followed by 2020, 2019, and 2022, respectively. Although
the publication trend is positive, the number of research papers published in 2022 has
decreased slightly, which does not follow this trend line.
Table 2: Authorship pattern of the papers.
y = 15.618x + 86.4
R² = 0.6437
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Publication Growth
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 7 April 2023 doi:10.20944/preprints202304.0109.v1
3 of 5
Number of Author
Number of Papers
Percentage
One
323
18.75
Two
520
30.18
Three
375
21.76
Four
239
13.87
Five
125
7.25
More than five
141
8.18
Total
1723
100.00
Authorship Patten & Degree of Collaboration: Table 2 describes the authorship pat-
tern of the publications. It can be seen that only 18.75% of all published articles were writ-
ten by single authors, while the majority were written by joint or collaborative authors.
Among the collaborative research works, the number of articles published by two authors
is the highest at 30.18%, followed by three authors (21.76%) and four authors (13.87%).
The degree of collaboration indicates the trend of collaborative authorship pattern among
the authors for publishing papers (Subramanyam, 1983). The average degree of collabo-
ration is 0.81, which clearly indicates a slight dominance of joint authors in the field of
authorship pattern." Degree of Collaboration is calculated by simple formula that is (DC)
= where Nm is the number of multi-authored papers, and Ns is number of single
authored papers (Subramanyam, 1983).
Table 3: Time Cited of the publications.
Time Cited
Number of Papers
Percentage
0
459
26.64
1
226
13.12
2
148
8.59
3
108
6.27
4
87
5.05
5
73
4.24
6
69
4.00
7
49
2.84
8
41
2.38
9
43
2.50
10
29
1.68
>10
391
22.69
Total
1723
100.00
Citation Status: Table 3 presents the citation count for the publications, and it shows
that three-quarters of the 1723 papers have received at least one citation, which is quite
impressive. Furthermore, 420 articles have been cited 10 or more times, representing about
24% of all publications, which is a significant statistic in terms of citations. Analyzing the
citation behavior from this table, it can be concluded that the articles on this topic are of
high quality, which is why they have received a considerable number of citations
Publication Source: Table 4 shows the top ten sources of publication, and it can be
seen that papers on authorship patterns are published in reputed journals all over the
world, indicating that these papers are of very good quality. Among the publication
sources, Library Philosophy and Practice occupied the first place with 21.71% of the total
publications, followed by Scientometrics (82), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, DESI-
DOC Journal of Library and Information Technology, and others
Table 4: Top Ten Source of Publication.
Publication Source
Number of Papers
Percentage
Rank
Library Philosophy and Practice
374
21.71
1
Scientometrics
82
4.76
2
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 7 April 2023 doi:10.20944/preprints202304.0109.v1
4 of 5
Lecture Notes in Computer Science
45
2.61
3
DESIDOC Journal of Library and
Information Technology
34 1.97 4
Plos One
31
1.80
5
Journal Of Informetrics
18
1.04
6
Annals Of Library and Information
Studies
15 0.87 7
Current Science
12
0.70
8
Ceur Workshop Proceedings
9
0.52
9
International Journal of Information
Science and Management
9 0.52 9
Science And Technology Libraries
8
0.46
10
Table 5: Most productive countries.
Country
Number of Papers
Percentage
India
504
29.25
United States
302
17.53
United Kingdom
98
5.69
China
95
5.51
Spain
95
5.51
Canada
58
3.37
Brazil
56
3.25
Saudi Arabia
56
3.25
Germany
55
3.19
Pakistan
55
3.19
Most productive countries: Table 6 describes of the publications by country shows
that India tops the list with 504 articles published, followed by the United States (302) and
the United Kingdom (98). In addition, countries such as China, Spain, Canada, Brazil,
Saudi Arabia, Germany, and Pakistan have also made significant contributions to the re-
search on authorship patterns
Table 6: Top Ten Most Productive Institution.
Institution Name
Number of Papers
Percentage
Rank
Periyar University
30
1.74
1
Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University
29
1.68
2
Alagappa University
24
1.39
3
Banaras Hindu University
22
1.28
4
Universitat de València
19
1.10
5
Annamalai University
17
0.99
6
King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for
Health Sciences
17 0.99 6
Universidade de São Paulo
16
0.93
7
University of Kashmir
15
0.87
8
University of Delhi
15
0.87
8
Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology,
Bhubaneswar
14 0.81 9
Prince Sultan University
13
0.75
Chinese Academy of Sciences
13
0.75
Mizoram University
13
0.75
Productive Institutions: An analysis of the institutional affiliations (Table 6) of the
authors shows that prestigious educational institutions from around the world are asso-
ciated with these research publications. Periyar University has occupied the number one
position in the list by publishing 30 articles, followed by other reputed institutes such as
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 7 April 2023 doi:10.20944/preprints202304.0109.v1
5 of 5
Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (29), Alagappa University (24), and Banaras
Hindu University (22), among others
Table 7: Type of Publication.
Type of publication
Number of Papers
Percentage
Article
1315
76.32
Conference Paper
205
11.90
Review
111
6.44
Book Chapter
35
2.03
Conference Review
21
1.22
Erratum
15
0.87
Book
8
0.46
Note
6
0.35
Letter
3
0.17
Short Survey
2
0.12
Editorial
1
0.06
Retracted
1
0.06
Total
1723
100
Type of Publication: From the above table it can be seen that out of the total papers,
research articles are the most published type of publication, thereafter conference paper,
review, book chapter and conference review respectively have been published. A variety
of topics have been published on authorship patterns, which can be considered a very
significant finding of this present study.
Conclusion
Currently, researchers are working on various topics ranging from domestic to na-
tional and international levels. In this context, the aim of authorship studies is to analyse
all the parameters associated with publications in any research field. Authorship studies
have been conducted on various subjects, from science to humanities and social sciences
in the past. Analysing the current state of research publications on authorship studies was
essential and the main objective of this work. This study shows that the publication
growth trend of authorship patterns has been very positive, with joint authorship patterns
found in these publications, and high-quality sources of publication. Additionally, the ci-
tations of the papers indicate that publications on this topic are highly cited, which is sig-
nificant. Analysing these parameters suggests that more quantitative research should be
conducted in the future by applying authorship studies to other disciplines.
References
1. Bandyopadhyay, A. K. (2001). Authorship pattern in different disciplines. Annals of library and information studies, 48(4), 139-147.
2. Khaparde, V., & Pawar, S. (2013). Authorship pattern and degree of collaboration in Information Technology. Journal of Com-
puter Science & Information Technology, 1(1), 46-54.
3. Kirtania, D. K. (2021). Authorship Pattern of Library Philosophy and Practice Journal: A Bibliometrics Analysis. Library Philos-
ophy and Practice (e-journal), 6021.
4. Kirtania, D. K., & Chakrabarti, B. (2018). Authorship pattern of open access social science journals published in India. Journal of
Information Management, 5(1), 1-6.
5. Mahapatra, G. (2000). Bibliometric Studies: On Indian Library & Information Science Literature. Delhi: Crest Publishing.
6. Patra, S. K., Bhattacharya, P., & Verma, N. (2006). Bibliometric study of literature on bibliometrics. DESIDOC Bulletin of Infor-
mation Technology, 26(1), 27-32.
7. Subramanyam, K. (1983). Bibliometric studies of research collaboration: a review. Journal of Information Science, 6(1), 33-38.
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 7 April 2023 doi:10.20944/preprints202304.0109.v1
