Letters to the editor in exercise science and physical therapy journals: an examination of content and “authorship inflation”

Nuzzo, James L.

doi:10.1007/s11192-021-04068-w

Cited by 6 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…One might also argue that anonymous or ambiguous authorship of editorials should be permitted because listing the names of all editors who co‐author or sign‐off on an editorial will cause authorship inflation. Authorship inflation (Knudson, 2011; Nuzzo, 2021a; Papatheodorou et al, 2008) and honorary authorship (Al‐Herz et al, 2014; Flanagin et al, 1998) are legitimate concerns within academic publishing across various article types. However, a journal signature rather than an author signature still conceals potential conflicts of interest.…”

Section: Limitations and Other Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anonymous editorials in biomedical research journals: Few in number but potentially problematic

Nuzzo

2023

Learned Publishing

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Key points Editorials are typically brief comments by a journal's chief editor or associate editors on journal news, study findings, or trends in science or practice. Anonymous editorials, which account for 1%–3% of editorials indexed in PubMed, are those in which the author's name is absent or replaced by the journal's name. Chief editors cannot be assumed to be the authors of anonymous editorials, which causes multiple issues. Anonymous editorials prevent readers from assessing the author's potential conflicts of interest and their credibility for discussing the editorial's topic. Anonymous editorials also make credit and accountability for ideas in editorials difficult to establish and increase likelihood of authorship misattribution. This article proposes that editorials be published with the names, affiliations, and potential conflicts of interests of the individuals who author them.

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Section: Limitations and Other Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anonymous editorials in biomedical research journals: Few in number but potentially problematic

Nuzzo

2023

Learned Publishing

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“…Liu (2017), for example, found that the dominance of the English language in academic communication is growing, not least because articles published in English are more likely to be cited than articles in other languages. Earlier studies of academic contention articles in English-language journals considered the number of letters per year (Anstey, 2014) and the number of authors per letter (Nuzzo, 2021). Here, we have adopted similar measures to explore the evolution of Shang Que articles.…”

Section: Research Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As well as exploring Shang Que articles in science, engineering and medicine (as has been done with Letters to the Editor in English-language journals, e.g. Magnet and Carnet, 2006;Van Leeuwen et al, 2007;Anstey, 2014;Nuzzo, 2021), we also consider Shang Que articles in the social sciences and humanities, and further explore what Chinese scholars JD 79,6…”

Section: Research Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These discussion articles are clearly distinguished from research papers, either by grouping them in specific sections of the journal or by labelling them as something other than a research paper. Unlike research papers, they are not structured using the traditional IMRaD headings (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) (Paton, 1976); they tend to be more succinct (Von Elm et al, 2009;Nuzzo, 2021); and they may not present all details of an argument.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Anstey (2014), for example, analysed the correspondence section of the British Journal of Dermatology and found that the number of published letters had decreased in recent years. Nuzzo (2021) studied seven exercise science and physical therapy journals and concluded that there was “authorship inflation”, with the average number of authors per letter increasing in letters published between 1963 and 2018. Generally, researchers focused on a single journal or several journals that dealt with the same subject, making it difficult to apply findings more widely.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Chinese academic tradition examined in the context of international academic communication: exploratory research into Shang Que articles

Zheng

Xiao

Madden

2023

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PurposeAcademic contention occurs when research evidence is amenable to more than one interpretation. China has a long tradition of Shang Que (商榷), in which authors argue for their preferred interpretation. The modern form of this tradition is the Shang Que article, which often takes the form of research papers in Chinese-language journals and which tends to be question-oriented. Shang Que articles usually take the views of a particular author or article as the focus of independent and complete criticism by another, independent, academic. This paper explains the role of Shang Que articles in Chinese scholarship and their influence on international academia.Design/methodology/approachA bibliometric analysis was used to explore the characteristics and evolution of Chinese Shang Que articles using 30,577 articles published between 1979 and 2018. Microsoft Excel and Gephi were used for data analysis and visualization.FindingsFindings suggest a decline in the number of Shang Que articles and an increase in the number of co-authors. Shang Que articles remained particularly prominent in Philosophy and Humanities and Social Sciences, where they focused on local issues such as classical Chinese, the Sinicization of Marxism and Chinese literature. This suggests that the number of Shang Que articles is related to the degree of internationalization of a research field.Originality/valueShang Que articles, which have been influenced by academic paradigms in English, are a fusion of China's Shang Que tradition and of the modern academic system. Through considering Shang Que articles, this paper explores the benefits of local academic traditions in non-English-speaking cultures.

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Journal self-citations trends in sport sciences: an analysis of disciplinary journals from 2013 to 2022

Bennett,

Singh,

Slattery

2024

Scientometrics

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This study reports on the yearly rate of journal self-citation (JSC) in sport sciences, how it changes over time, and its association with journal impact factor (JIF). Citations made by all 87 journals in “sport sciences” from 2013 to 2022 were extracted, as was their 2022 JIF. JSC rates were calculated using a Poisson distribution method. A mixed-effects negative binomial regression examined changes in yearly JSC rates over time. The association between average JSC rates and JIF were compared using a negative binomial regression. The median JSC rate was 6.3 self-citations per 100 citations. JSC rates are increasing in sport sciences by ~ 10% per year (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.1, 95% CI 1.1–1.2; trivial effect). There was a significant negative association between JSC rate and JIF (IRR = 0.9, 95% CI 0.9, 1.0; trivial effect). Contrary to observations made in prior literature examining broader disciplines, the increasing JSC rate in sport sciences may be attributed to the growing maturity of this novel discipline. As sport-science topic areas become more established and appear in discipline specific journals, more JSCs may occur due to an increasing body of literature in these journals. The negative association between JSC rate and JIF may be due to specialized and less visible journals having a naturally lower JIF, as their impact is confined to a narrower field.

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Letters to the editor in exercise science and physical therapy journals: an examination of content and “authorship inflation”

Cited by 6 publications

References 85 publications

Anonymous editorials in biomedical research journals: Few in number but potentially problematic

Anonymous editorials in biomedical research journals: Few in number but potentially problematic

A Chinese academic tradition examined in the context of international academic communication: exploratory research into Shang Que articles

Journal self-citations trends in sport sciences: an analysis of disciplinary journals from 2013 to 2022

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