The Rise of Multiple Institutional Affiliations in Academia

TL;DR

This paper provides the first large-scale international analysis of multiple institutional affiliations in academic publications, revealing their increasing prevalence, associated patterns, and potential links to funding policies.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive, systematic analysis of the growth and patterns of multiple affiliations across countries and disciplines, highlighting policy implications.

Findings

Almost one in three articles involved authors with multiple affiliations in 2019.

The share of authors with multiple affiliations increased from 10% to 16% since 1996.

International co-affiliations are most common between US, China, Germany, and UK.

Abstract

This study provides the first systematic, international, large-scale evidence on the extent and nature of multiple institutional affiliations on journal publications. Studying more than 15 million authors and 22 million articles from 40 countries we document that: In 2019, almost one in three articles was (co-)authored by authors with multiple affiliations and the share of authors with multiple affiliations increased from around 10% to 16% since 1996. The growth of multiple affiliations is prevalent in all fields and it is stronger in high impact journals. About 60% of multiple affiliations are between institutions from within the academic sector. International co-affiliations, which account for about a quarter of multiple affiliations, most often involve institutions from the United States, China, Germany and the United Kingdom, suggesting a core-periphery network. Network analysis also reveals a number communities of countries that are more likely to share affiliations. We discuss potential causes and show that the timing of the rise in multiple affiliations can be linked to the introduction of more competitive funding structures such as 'excellence initiatives' in a number of countries. We discuss implications for science and science policy.