Multiple authorship in published occupational therapy reports

This study aimed at evaluating the extent of multiple authorship in published occupational therapy reports. Multiple authorship is the listing of more than one author for a paper. A review of the original articles of five English-language occupational therapy journals published during the last 10 years (1989-1998) was carried out. The total number of articles examined was 2131. There was no statistically significant change over time in the number of authors in the five journals when combined together. However, when each journal was studied individually, there was a significant change in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy (P < 0.001, Kruscal-Wallis test) and the Occupational Therapy Journal of Research (P < 0.05, Kruscal-Wallis test). The maximum number of authors from a single department was significantly higher in the Australian Occupational Therapy Journal. There was a significant correlation between the number of authors per article and the maximum number of authors from a single department (R = 0.70, F = 2106, P < 0.0001) and a significant correlation between the number of authors per article and the number of departments involved in the study (R = 0.68, F = 1822, P < 0.0001). This study shows that multiple authorship is not a major problem in the published occupational therapy reports.