Trends in Astronomical Publishing: The Rise of Many-author Papers

Publication records for papers with a first-author plus ten or more coauthors are documented for three journals (Astronomy & Astrophysics, the Astrophysical Journal, and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society) over a span of forty years from 1986 to 2025. Papers are divided into groupings according to the number of authors: 11–20, 21–30, 31–50, 51–100, and >100. The annual number of papers in the first four groups have increased consistently throughout the period surveyed. Papers with more than 100 coauthors are predominantly of a small number of types: observational studies at high energies ( γ -ray, X-ray, and cosmic ray), gravitational-wave searches, neutrino astronomy, or astrometry.