Publication of multiple articles in psychology: Definition of the atypical, probable and normal production

Abstract

With the aim of knowing the multi-publication rate of the Spanish researchers in the field of Psychology in prestigious journals, an archival study was designed. As for this, the average of scientific papers published by author and natural year in journals indexed in the Core Collection of the Web of Science by 551 researchers classified by knowledge area was computed. The results showed that 5% of the researchers had an atypical production (outliers or extreme values) and, on the contrary, other 5% had no scientific production. The probable authorship of papers by author ranged, according to knowledge area, between around 1 paper per year (lower limit of the interval) and around 2 and 2,5 (upper limit of the interval) by year, publishing the middle of the distribution more than 1 paper per year. The upper limit of the normal interval stated that 5% of the researchers publish an average, according to the knowledge area, slightly more than 2 or 3 papers per year. Moreover, the results exhibited significant differences among the knowledge areas in the multi-publication rate, registering the highest rates in the area of Clinical Psychology. The implications of the results for the assessment of the research activity of the Psychology researchers are discussed.