what would professor de boer think?

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N2 What would Professor De Boer think? In the introduction to the Proceedings of the 3rd International Catalysis Congress (ICC) held in Amsterdam, Professor De Boer compared the number of papers with multiple authors at the 3rd ICC to those at the previous two conferences. Professor De Boer noted that, "It is interesting to observe that the number of authors per paper increases in the course of time. This is, perhaps, a result of the increasing im- portance of team work in research labora- tories." Professor De Boer provided a table as reproduced below, updated by adding data for the following seven ICCs. Professor De Boer also tabulated the percentage of papers with various num- bers of authors and this table has also been updated to include data for the last seven ICCs. The trend is obvious -- the number of papers at the ICCs is increasing as well as the number of authors per paper. The two trends differ. The number of authors per paper shows a nearly linear increase with Table 1 Number of papers, total number of authors and authors/paper (plenary of the ten International Congress on Catalysis (ICC) lectures excluded) at each Congress No. of papers Total no. authors Authors/paper I(1956) 81 157 1.94 II(1960) 144 325 2.26 111(1964) 98 250 2.55 IV(1968) 93 252 2.71 V(1972) 107 281 2.62 VI(1976) 101 303 3.00 VI1(1980) 163 528 3.24 VII1(1984) 271 968 3.57 IX(1988) 244 919 3,76 X(1992) 434 1674 3.86 Fig. 1. P //- 500 a, 200 2 I I I I I I I l I IJ 1956 1950 1064 1988 1072 1975 1980 1984 1966 1992 Year applied catalysis A: General Volume 134 No. 1 -- 4 January 1996

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Page 1: What would Professor De Boer think?

N2

W h a t w o u l d Professor De Boer think?

In the introduction to the Proceedings of the 3rd International Catalysis Congress (ICC) held in Amsterdam, Professor De Boer compared the number of papers with multiple authors at the 3rd ICC to those at the previous two conferences. Professor De Boer noted that, "It is interesting to observe that the number of authors per paper increases in the course of time. This is, perhaps, a result of the increasing im- portance of team work in research labora-

tories." Professor De Boer provided a table as reproduced below, updated by adding data for the following seven ICCs.

Professor De Boer also tabulated the percentage of papers with various num- bers of authors and this table has also been updated to include data for the last seven ICCs.

The trend is obvious - - the number of papers at the ICCs is increasing as well as the number of authors per paper. The two trends differ. The number of authors per paper shows a nearly linear increase with

Table 1 Number of papers, total number of authors and authors/paper (plenary of the ten International Congress on Catalysis (ICC)

lectures excluded) at each

Congress No. of papers Total no. authors Authors/paper

I(1956) 81 157 1.94 II (1960) 144 325 2.26 111(1964) 98 250 2.55 IV(1968) 93 252 2.71 V(1972) 107 281 2.62 VI (1976) 101 303 3.00 VI1(1980) 163 528 3.24 VII1(1984) 271 968 3.57 IX(1988) 244 919 3,76 X(1992) 434 1674 3.86

Fig. 1.

P

/ / - 500

a ,

2 0 0 2

I I I I I I I l I I J 1956 1950 1064 1988 1072 1975 1980 1984 1966 1992

Year

appl ied catalysis A: Genera l Volume 134 No. 1 - - 4 January 1996

Page 2: What would Professor De Boer think?

N3

Table 2

Percentage of papers with number of authors

Congress 1 2 3 4 b 5 6 7 7 +

1 31 47 20 2 a . . . .

2 26 39 22 13 a . . . .

3 18 35 28 19 a . . . .

4 20 30 26 13 5.4 3.2 2,2 -

5 12 36 31 14 4.7 0.93 - -

6 9 33 28 22 4 3 1 -

7 5.5 26 30 25 7.4 3.1 2.5 0,6

8 5.9 23 24 24 11 6,6 3,0 2.6

9 3.7 17 29 22 16 8.6 1.6 -

10 2.8 17 26 26 14 8.8 3.2 1.8

a From Proceedings 3rd ICC. b 4+ are lumped together by Professor De Boer.

each conference. On the other hand, the number of papers presented remains nearly constant during the first six Con- gresses and then shows a dramatic in- crease for the meetings that follow (Fig. 1).

It was a coincidence that the writer had gone through the Proceedings of the 3rd ICC, glanced at Professor De Boer's paper and then reread it within a month of reading an article that appeared in Current Con- tents (October 2, 1995, Vol. 26, No. 40, pp. 5-7) concerning the growth of papers with multiple authors. This recent issue of Cur- rent Contents contained a brief article under the heading "Research Trends...A Performance Report". Each month this feature exploits ISl's unique publication and citation data to illuminate current trends in research and to reveal research performance. The article for October 2, 1995 was entitled "Really Big Science: Multiauthor Papers Multiplying in the 1990s." The article begins by using as an example of such papers the an- nouncement by physicists at Fermilab of the capture at long last of the elusive top quark. They note that hundreds had shared in the hunt and that hundreds

shared in the triumph. In one Physical Re- view Letters paper published in 1994, they note that nearly 400 authors (actually 398

authors representing 34 organizations lo- cated in five nations) discussed evidence of the top quark in proton antiproton colli- sions at Fermilab's Tevatron accelerator. In fact, for 1994, a compilation of the three most highly cited physics papers with greater than 100 authors were by authors at the Fermilab and were concerned with the search and evidence for the top quark.

The increase in multiauthor papers shows a gradual increase from 1981 to 1990, and a surprisingly rapid increase from 1991 onward (Fig. 2). The authors of the ISI article note with interest the drop for the year 1991, attribute it solely to a drop in papers in physics, and are continuing to investigate to learn whether they can ex- plain the drop. However, the increase in the number of papers with greater than 100 authors is not limited to physics alone, as illustrated by the data presented in Fig. 3.

A glance at the figures shows that cata- lysis scientists are far from becoming the "research teams" that other areas of study have attained. For example, only one

a p p l i e d cata lys is A: General Volume 134 No. 1 - - 4 Januan/1996

Page 3: What would Professor De Boer think?

N4

500

~= 400

300 0

20C

~ 100

0

M u l t i a u t h o r P a p e r s , 1 9 8 1 - 9 4

,~"-- ~ .~ >50 A,,thors

°1

i o I °

• / ' x ~ 1 ~ ' - - - - > 100 Authors

.~" . . . . . . . . " . . . . . . . . . . . %~J~/ /~ '~" " " ~ >200 Authors

~ * ¢. . - ~ , , ~ . / - 1 " " " ' t - • 1 • >500 Auth°rs 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94

Years

Fig. 2.

Number of Papers In Physics and Medicine with >100 Authors, 1985-94

125 r

O. 1001.. Physics

75

~ so

Z -

' ' ' ' ' ~o ~1 ~2 ~3 & 85 86 87 88 89

Years

Fig. 3. paper in the 10 ICCs had more than 20 authors (21 authors at the lOth ICC seems to have set the record for the ICC). Thus, we fall far short of attaining a ranking in the 200 papers with greater than 100 authors, or even breaking into the 400 ranking of those with greater than 50 authors. Using the slope of the straight line in Fig. 1, we calculate that it will take 864 years for cata- lysis scientists to average 50 authors/paper at the current growth rate. The optimist could therefore take the view that there is much room for growth of cata- lysis. The realist would conclude that there is little hope that catalysis researchers will, at this late date, attain the lofty position of

enormous funding with few expectation of immediate or even short-term return on investment. In fact, since catalysis is easily utilized in a variety of processes, many share the view expressed, for example, by Professor Yoshihiko Moro-oka, that tech- nology is as important or more than science as the driving force for catalysis. Given the combined scientific and techno- logical orientation of Professor De Boer, it is likely that he would not be unhappy to see Fig. 1 and the modest growth rate of muitiauthored papers.

B.H. Davis

applied catalysis A: General Volume 134 No 1 - - 4 January 1996