2018/10/31 by Giovanni Abramo, Ciriaco Andrea D'Angelo · 1 citation
Computer Science · #cs.DL
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.joi.2015.07.003
published as Journal of Informetrics, 9(4), 746-761
arxiv created 2018/10/31 · arxiv updated 2018/11/01
Empirical evidence shows that co-authored publications achieve higher visibility and impact. The aim of the current work is to test for the existence of a similar correlation for Italian publications. We also verify if such correlation differs: i) by subject category and macro-area; ii) by document type; iii) over the course of time. The results confirm world-level evidence, showing a consistent and significant linear growth in the citability of a publication with number of co-authors, in almost all subject categories. The effects are more remarkable in the fields of Social Sciences and Art & Humanities than in the Sciences-a finding not so obvious scrutinizing previous studies. Moreover, our results partly disavow the positive association between number of authors and prestige of the journal, as measured by its impact factor.