title: Trends in authorship in an Indian pediatric dentistry journal: relevance of matthew effect.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The maxim "rich get richer and the poor get poorer" forms the basis for Matthew effect in Science. Our goal of conducting this study was to test the hypothesis that the gap in number of publications between renowned, older authors and newer authors amongst Indian pediatric dentists widens over time as stated by the Matthew effect and possible trends in publication in Journal of Indian Society of Pedodontics & Preventive Dentistry (JISPPD).
  
  
  METHODS
  It was hypothesized that the Matthew effect is applicable to the work published by Indian Pedodontists in the official publication of Indian Society of Pedodontics & Preventive Dentistry (ISPPD). The names of the authors in JISPPD from 1996 to 2011 were recorded year wise and the data was entered in Microsoft excel 2007 and analyzed using SPSS software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study revealed that there were a total of 823 papers published in JISPPD during the study period (1996 to 2011) by 1142 authors. 71.6% authors had contributed only one paper and 14.4% authors had contributed two papers during the study period. Only 0.6% authors had contributed to 20 or more papers. The results revealed evidence of Matthew effect for publications in JISPPD and the effect is relatively large.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of the study showed that the Matthew effect is prevalent in the publication trends in JISPPD.
authors.affiliation: Edodontics and Preventive Dentistry. Centre for Dental Education and Research. All India Institute of Medical Sciences. New Delhi.
authors.forename: Jatinder
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kaur Dhillon
authors.affiliation: Edodontics and Preventive Dentistry. Centre for Dental Education and Research. All India Institute of Medical Sciences. New Delhi.
authors.forename: Gauri
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kalra
authors.affiliation: Edodontics and Preventive Dentistry. Centre for Dental Education and Research. All India Institute of Medical Sciences. New Delhi.
authors.forename: Ashutosh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Edodontics and Preventive Dentistry. Centre for Dental Education and Research. All India Institute of Medical Sciences. New Delhi.
authors.forename: Vijay
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Prakash Mathur
keywords: Indian; Matthew effect; Pediatric dentist; publication trends.