SciTech Daily December 4, 2021
An international team of researchers (France, Italy, Canada, UK) explored the usefulness of the Percentage of Papers by the Most Prolific author (PPMP) and the Gini index (level of inequality in the distribution of authorship among authors) as tools to identify journals that may show favoritism in accepting articles by specific authors. Among the journals with the highest PPMP or Gini index values, where a few authors were responsible for a disproportionate number of publications, a random sample was manually examined, revealing that the most prolific author was part of the editorial board in 60 cases (61%). The papers by the most prolific authors were more likely to be accepted for publication within 3 weeks of their submission. In most journals, publications are distributed across many authors. Our results reveal a subset of journals where a few authors, often members of the editorial board, were responsible for a disproportionate number of publications. To enhance trust in their practices, journals need to be transparent about their editorial and peer review practices…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
…Publication lag median (in days) are presented for articles signed by the most prolific authors compared to the articles without any of the most prolific authors… Credit: PLOS Biology, November 23, 2021Â