Impact of authorship on citation rates: a comparative analysis of top 9999 articles in social science

Abstract

Publishing in high-impact journals scanned in prestigious indexes and getting as many citations as possible have been the sources of recognition and credibility for researchers. On the other hand, there has been seen a change in authorship trends over the years. A key trend observed in authorship these days has been the decline of single-authored publications and the rise of multiple-authored ones. The relationship between authorship and citation rates remains unclear, though. Only a limited scope of studies has compared single and multiple-authored articles regarding citation rates, especially in social sciences. This research aims to determine whether there is a difference between single and multiple-authored social sciences journal articles in terms of citations they receive and, if so, to provide insights into the possible reasons behind this difference. The quantitative and qualitative data collected revealed four findings. First, in the field of social sciences, single-authored articles receive more citations than multiple-authored ones. Second, although multiple authorship brings multiple perspectives, it may harm the unity and cohesion of an article. Third, single-authored articles have a smooth and fluent style, which makes them easier to read. Last, the articles with a single author require more field expertise and deeper analyzes.