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Rethinking the comparison of coauthorship credit allocation schemes

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  • Kim, Jinseok
  • Kim, Jinmo

Abstract

This paper compares Fractional, Geometric, Arithmetic, Harmonic, and Network-Based schemes for allocating coauthorship credits. Each scheme is operationalized to be flexible in producing credit distribution by changing parameters, and to incorporate a special situation where the first and corresponding authors are assigned equal credits. For testing each scheme, empirical datasets from economics, marketing, psychology, chemistry, and medicine, were collected and errors in how each scheme approximates empirical data was measured. Results show that Harmonic scheme performs best overall, contrary to some claims of preceding studies in support of Harmonic or Network-Based models. The performance of a scheme, however, seems to heavily depend on empirical datasets and flexibility of the scheme, not on its innate feature. This study suggests that the comparison of coauthorship credit allocation schemes should be taken with care.

Suggested Citation

  • Kim, Jinseok & Kim, Jinmo, 2015. "Rethinking the comparison of coauthorship credit allocation schemes," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 667-673.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:infome:v:9:y:2015:i:3:p:667-673
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2015.07.005
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jinseok Kim & Jana Diesner, 2015. "Coauthorship networks: A directed network approach considering the order and number of coauthors," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 66(12), pages 2685-2696, December.
    2. Xiaojun Hu, 2009. "Loads of special authorship functions: Linear growth in the percentage of “equal first authors” and corresponding authors," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 60(11), pages 2378-2381, November.
    3. Jinseok Kim & Jana Diesner, 2014. "A network-based approach to coauthorship credit allocation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(1), pages 587-602, October.
    4. Nils T. Hagen, 2010. "Harmonic publication and citation counting: sharing authorship credit equitably – not equally, geometrically or arithmetically," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 84(3), pages 785-793, September.
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    12. Liu, Xuan Zhen & Fang, Hui, 2012. "Modifying h-index by allocating credit of multi-authored papers whose author names rank based on contribution," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 557-565.
    13. G. Van Hooydonk, 1997. "Fractional counting of multiauthored publications: Consequences for the impact of authors," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 48(10), pages 944-945, October.
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    16. Du Jian & Tang Xiaoli, 2013. "Perceptions of author order versus contribution among researchers with different professional ranks and the potential of harmonic counts for encouraging ethical co-authorship practices," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 96(1), pages 277-295, July.
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    2. Waltman, Ludo, 2016. "A review of the literature on citation impact indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 365-391.
    3. Osório, António (António Miguel), 2019. "The value and credits of n-authors publications," Working Papers 2072/376026, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
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    5. Zhai, Li & Yan, Xiangbin, 2022. "A directed collaboration network for exploring the order of scientific collaboration," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4).
    6. Liu, Xuan Zhen & Fang, Hui, 2023. "A geometric counting method adaptive to the author number," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).
    7. Xie, Qing & Zhang, Xinyuan & Song, Min, 2021. "A network embedding-based scholar assessment indicator considering four facets: Research topic, author credit allocation, field-normalized journal impact, and published time," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4).
    8. António Osório, 2018. "On the impossibility of a perfect counting method to allocate the credits of multi-authored publications," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(3), pages 2161-2173, September.
    9. Hao Wang & Hua-Wei Shen & Xue-Qi Cheng, 2016. "Scientific credit diffusion: Researcher level or paper level?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 827-837, November.

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