Examining Extreme Publishing Behavior: Insights into Hyperprolific Authors in Earth & Environmental Sciences (2000-2022)

A study by Ioannidis et al. (2024) investigates extreme publishing behavior, defined as publishing over 60 scientific articles in a single year.This phenomenon is attributed to both genuinely prolific authors and those benefiting from consortium agreements or questionable practices like gift authorship.This study uses PubPeer to investigate potential unethical practices among hyperprolific authors in Earth & Environmental Sciences to differentiate genuine productivity from spurious behavior.The study focused on hyperprolific authors, defined as those publishing over 73 papers annually.Using the database used by the Ioannidis et al.'s study, 41 such authors could be found in Earth & Environmental Sciences.Their H-index ranged from 26 to 188, with a median of 102.Hyperprolific behavior increased sharply, from a few authors in 2005 to 22 in 2022.