# The Rise of Multiple Institutional Affiliations in Academia

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.05576 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.05576/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 11 Dec 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Conflicts of Interest in Published NLP Research 2000-2024](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.16218/) (2025)
- [Quantifying the Knowledge Proximity Between Academic and Industry Research: An Entity and Semantic Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.05211/) (2026)
- [Cleaning English Abstracts of Scientific Publications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.24459/) (2025)
- [Exploring Novelty Differences between Industry and Academia: A Knowledge Entity-centric Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.19319/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This study provides the first systematic, international, large-scale evidence on the extent and nature of multiple institutional affiliations on journal publications. Studying more than 15 million authors and 22 million articles from 40 countries we document that: In 2019, almost one in three articles was (co-)authored by authors with multiple affiliations and the share of authors with multiple affiliations increased from around 10% to 16% since 1996. The growth of multiple affiliations is prevalent in all fields and it is stronger in high impact journals. About 60% of multiple affiliations are between institutions from within the academic sector. International co-affiliations, which account for about a quarter of multiple affiliations, most often involve institutions from the United States, China, Germany and the United Kingdom, suggesting a core-periphery network. Network analysis also reveals a number communities of countries that are more likely to share affiliations. We discuss potential causes and show that the timing of the rise in multiple affiliations can be linked to the introduction of more competitive funding structures such as 'excellence initiatives' in a number of countries. We discuss implications for science and science policy.