Academic Co-authorship is a Risky Game

TL;DR

This paper introduces a game-theory-based computational model to analyze co-authorship dynamics, revealing that current academic practices are risky and often rely on researcher integrity rather than systematic design.

Contribution

It presents the first data-driven, game-theory model for co-authorship, highlighting how ultimatums and relationships influence authorship outcomes and publication processes.

Findings

Ultimatums significantly affect co-author order and publication length.

Current practices are risky and depend on researcher integrity.

Model reveals systemic issues in academic collaboration dynamics.

Abstract

Conducting a research project with multiple participants is a complex task that involves not only scientific but also multiple social, political, and psychological interactions. This complexity becomes particularly evident when it comes to navigating the selection process for the number and order of co-authors on the resulting manuscript for publication due to the current form of collaboration dynamics common in academia. There is currently no computational model to generate a data-driven suggestion that could be used as a baseline for understating these dynamics. To address this limitation, we have developed a first game-theory-based model to generate such a baseline for co-authorship. In our model, co-authors can issued an ultimatum to pause the publication of the manuscript until the underlying issue has been resolved. We modeled the effect of issuing one or more ultimatums and showed that they have a major impact on the ultimate number and position of co-authors and the length of the publication process. In addition, we explored the effect of two common relationships (student-advisor and colleague-colleague) on co-authorship scenarios. The results of our model are alarming and suggest that the current academic practices are not fit for purpose. Where they work, they work because of the integrity of researchers and not by a systematic design.