title: Success breeds success: authorship distribution in the Red Journal, 1975-2011.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Publication analysis has value in evaluating the mechanics of academic efforts in specific scientific communities. The specific aim of this study was to evaluate whether established bibliometric patterns seen in other academic fields were likewise observed in radiation oncology publication parameters.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used a commercial bibliographic database to analyze all publications in Red Journal, or International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics (IJROBP), the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), and Radiology (Rad) between January 1, 1975 and May 18, 2011. Power-law (Lotka's law or 1/n2) conformance was assessed. Curve fit analysis was then performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In all 4 journals, a total of 219,476 authors were responsible for 62,232 articles. Of those, 79,810 authors published 13,772 articles in IJROBP, with 79,446/16,707 authors/articles in NEJM, 106,984/11,920 authors/articles in JCO and 90,325/19,745 authors/articles in Rad. The mean±standard deviation of authors per publication was 5.74±4.61 overall. There were 5.8±3.53, 4.8±5.7, 8.9±3.53, and 4.6±2.8 authors per article in IJROBP, NEJM, JCO, and Rad, respectively (P<.001). The number of authors publishing n articles was 1/n2.02 of those publishing 1 article in IJROBP, 1/n2.52 in NEJM, 1/n1.97 in JCO, and 1/n2.16 in Rad.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Bibliometric analysis shows that authorship distributions in IJROBP approximate those of the scientific literature in comparable scientific journals. Our results suggest that the majority of publications in the field of radiation oncology are produced by a small but highly productive group of authors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Holliday
authors.forename: Clifton David
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Fuller
authors.forename: Lynn D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Charles R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Thomas
mesh_terms: D001319:Authorship; D015706:Bibliometrics; D006801:Humans; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018787:Radiation Oncology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*