Abstract(s)
This paper provides the first historical analysis of the relationship between collaboration and
scientific impact, using three indicators of collaboration (number of authors, number of addresses,
and number of countries) and including articles published between 1900 and 2011. The results
demonstrate that an increase in the number of authors leads to an increase in impact–-from the
beginning of the last century onwards—and that this is not simply due to self-citations. A similar
trend is also observed for the number of addresses and number of countries represented in the
byline of an article. However, the constant inflation of collaboration since 1900 has resulted in
diminishing citation returns: larger and more diverse (in terms of institutional and country
affiliation) teams are necessary to realize higher impact. The paper concludes with a discussion of
the potential causes of the impact gain in citations of collaborative papers.