Abstract
Accurate measurement of research productivity should take account of both the number of
co-authors of every scientific work and of the different contributions of the individuals. For
researchers in the life sciences, common practice is to indicate such contributions through
position in the authors list. In this work, we measure the distortion introduced to bibliometric
ranking lists for scientific productivity when the number of co-authors or their
position in the list is ignored. The field of observation consists of all Italian university professors
working in the life sciences, with scientific production examined over the period
2004–2008. The outcomes of the study lead to a recommendation against using indicators
or evaluation methods that ignore the different authors’ contributions to the research
results.
© 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Journal | Journal of Informetrics |
Volume | 7 |
Pages (from-to) | 198– 208 |
ISSN | 1751-1577 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2013 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Research evaluation
- Co-authorship
- Fractional counting
- Bibliometrics
- Biology
- Medicine