Using Bibliometrics to Detect Unconventional Authorship Practices and Examine Their Impact on Global Research Metrics, 2019-2023

TL;DR

This study uses bibliometric analysis to identify unconventional authorship practices that have significantly impacted global research metrics between 2019 and 2023, highlighting the need for reforms to preserve academic integrity.

Contribution

It introduces bibliometric methods to detect and analyze unconventional authorship practices influencing research output and rankings.

Findings

Significant increase in research output from certain universities.

Detection of patterns indicating gift, honorary, and sold authorship.

Rise in multi-authorship and hyperprolific authorship practices.

Abstract

Between 2019 and 2023, sixteen universities increased their research output by over fifteen times the global average, alongside significant changes in authorship dynamics (e.g., decreased first authorship, rise in hyperprolific authors, increased multi-affiliations, and increased authors per publication rate). Using bibliometric methods, this study detected patterns suggesting a reliance on unconventional authorship practices, such as gift, honorary, and sold authorship, to inflate publication metrics. The study underscores the need for reforms by universities, policymakers, funding agencies, ranking agencies, accreditation bodies, scholarly publishers, and researchers to maintain academic integrity and ensure the reliability of global ranking systems.