How lonely or influential is the Lone Wolf? An analysis of individual scholars’ solo-authorship dynamics

Teddy Lazebnik () and Ariel Rosenfeld
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Teddy Lazebnik: Ariel University
Ariel Rosenfeld: Bar Ilan University

Scientometrics, 2025, vol. 130, issue 5, No 23, 3053-3069

Abstract: Abstract Collaboration has become a defining feature of modern science. Nevertheless, solo-authorship has not disappeared entirely. In this study, we investigate solo-authorship dynamics at the individual scholar level, a perspective often overlooked in favor of publication-level analyses, focusing on the propensity of scholars to solo-publish over their careers and this propensity’s potential relation to their academic influence. Using a dataset of 7238 scholars from Biology, Computer Science, Psychology, and Philosophy, we analyze the temporal solo-authorship patterns through heatmap analysis, time series clustering, and statistical testing. By formally defining and analyzing the notion of the academic “Lone Wolf”—a scholar who persistently solo-publishes at a high rate—we show that a global definition of a Lone Wolf may seem unreasonable. Nevertheless, we identify three characteristic solo-authorship trajectories across the four disciplines that share several commonalities and highly their differences. Our findings do not suggest any significant relation between scholars’ solo- authorship dynamics and their influence metrics.

Keywords: Scientific communication; Solo publishing; Solo authorship; Temporal analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-025-05332-z

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