AstroScanr: 200 Years of Collaboration

Analysis of authorship patterns in astronomical literature from 1827 to 2024 across thirteen peer-reviewed journals:

Core journals: MNRAS, ApJ, A&A, AJ, PASP. Modern additions: Nature Astronomy, ApJ Letters, PASA. Letters/short-form: MNRAS Letters. Specialized: Astronomische Nachrichten, Icarus, Solar Physics. Open access: The Open Journal of Astrophysics.

465,787 unique authors, 172,940 papers. Updated monthly via automated pipeline. Open source. Data freely available.

GitHub CSV Data

This dataset spans 199 years, from 1827 to 2024. Analysis covers thirteen journals across core, modern, letters, and specialized domains. 465,787 unique researchers across the dataset.

Three dates matter. In 1960, co-authorship began its acceleration. By 1996, papers with five or more authors had overtaken single-author work. As of the latest analysis in 2024, single-author papers represent just 3.5 percent of the total.

Average Authors per Paper

Trend from 1827 to 2024.

Average and Maximum Authors (Log Scale)

Maximum co-authors per paper on logarithmic scale.

Authorship Distribution

Percentage of papers by author count category.

Citation-Weighted Distribution

Distribution weighted by citation count per paper.

Research Population and Paper Output

Unique authors and papers published per year.

Authors per Paper Ratio

Unique authors per paper over time.

Observations

1827 to 1960

Authorship remained at approximately 1.0 authors per paper
Single-author papers comprised the vast majority of all publications

1960 to 1996

Co-authorship began increasing from 1960 onward
By 1996, papers with 5-plus authors overtook single-author papers for the first time

1996 to 2024

Average authors per paper: 12.0 (2024)
Single-author papers: 3.5 percent of total (2024)
Papers with 5-plus authors: 61.7 percent of total (2024)
Maximum co-authors on a single paper: 1,782 (2024)
Total unique authors across dataset: 465,787
Total papers across dataset: 172,940

The Evolution