Authorships, Collaborations, and Acknowledgments: On the Increasing Responsibility to Report Relative Contributions

The number of authors per article continues to increase in research relating to adolescent development. Indeed, single authorship is becoming a rarity. In this journal, for example and over the past few years, only about 5–6 % of manuscripts have been single-authored; while, in 2000, over 30 % were single-authored. The average number of authors per article also continues to increase, from about 2 in early 2000 to about 3.5 in 2011. Put another way, the proportion of articles published by four or more authors constituted about 15 % of articles in 2000 and well over 50 % in 2010. Given that we publish from 100 to 125 articles per year, the trend appears to be a robust one not attributable to such factors as temporary fluctuations in submissions or journal special issues. The trend certainly appears here to stay and likely will become the standard. …