Description The number of authors per article in the subject area Earth and Planetary Sciences is 8.7 on average with a maximum of 468 authors, which is the fourth highest number across all subject areas in our methodology (see below). The mean number of coauthors is increasing by 0.3 per year in the respective time period (Figure 1). The articles in this analysis ( n = 2818) were cited 23.4 times on average with
Description The number of authors per article in the subject area Agricultural and Biological Sciences is 5.2 on average with a maximum of 111 authors. The mean number of coauthors is increasing by 0.2 per year in the respective time period (Figure 1). The articles in this analysis ( n = 2710) were cited 8.9 times on average with a maximum of 479 citations.
Description The number of authors per article in the subject area Business, Management, and Accounting is 2.6 on average with a maximum of 8 authors. The mean number of coauthors is increasing by 0.1 per year in the respective time period (Figure 1). The articles in this analysis ( n = 999) were cited 10.5 times on average with a maximum of 138 citations.
Description The number of authors per article in the subject area Energy is 3.6 on average with a maximum of 11 authors. The mean number of coauthors is increasing by 0.3 per year in the respective time period (Figure 1). The articles in this analysis ( n = 1683) were cited 19.7 times on average with a maximum of 496 citations.
Description The number of authors per article in the subject area Medicine is 11 on average with a maximum of 1193 authors (Figure 1). Only Physics and Astronomy (Schmidt et al. 2017a) as well as Biochemistry, Genetics, and Molecular Biology (Schmidt et al. 2017a) have higher numbers regarding authors per article. The mean number of coauthors is increasing by 0.4 per year in the respective time period.
Motivation As the major currency in the scientific reputation economy, the analysis of article publishing reveals different disciplinary cultures and working styles.
Methodology We conducted an Advanced search in Scopus – a bibliographic data base with more than 22.000 peer-reviewed journals (Scopus, 2017) – between 27th of February and 7th of March 2017.
Description The number of authors per article in the subject area Physics and Astronomy is 1268 on average with a maximum of 5154 authors in one paper (ATLAS Collaboration et al., 2015). The mean number of coauthors is increasing by 58 per year in the respective time period (Figure 1). The articles in this analysis ( n = 2135) were cited 27 times on average.
