# The relationship between the number of authors of a publication, its citations and the impact factor of the publishing journal: Evidence from Italy

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.13339 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.13339/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 31 Oct 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Artificial intelligence technologies to support research assessment: A review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.06574/) (2022)
- [A scientometric analysis of the effect of COVID-19 on the spread of research outputs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03941/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Empirical evidence shows that co-authored publications achieve higher visibility and impact. The aim of the current work is to test for the existence of a similar correlation for Italian publications. We also verify if such correlation differs: i) by subject category and macro-area; ii) by document type; iii) over the course of time. The results confirm world-level evidence, showing a consistent and significant linear growth in the citability of a publication with number of co-authors, in almost all subject categories. The effects are more remarkable in the fields of Social Sciences and Art & Humanities than in the Sciences-a finding not so obvious scrutinizing previous studies. Moreover, our results partly disavow the positive association between number of authors and prestige of the journal, as measured by its impact factor.