Co-authorship trends in English literary studies, 1995-2015

Of all disciplines, literary studies has the most entrenched model of academic authorship – the sole author – yet the discipline rarely reflects critically on the implications of this model. This article offers a starting point by reporting on a study designed to analyse recent co-authorship trends within literary studies. It provides the large-scale data mining necessary for a longitudinal analysis. Using systematic sampling at five-year intervals between 1995 and 2015, the article examines 51,192 articles listed in the Modern Language Association International Bibliography to determine co-authorship rates in literary studies. The article shows that co-authorship is atypical, at an overall average of just over 4%. There is, however, evidence that co-authorship is becoming more common in the discipline, particularly since 2010. This article canvasses some possible reasons for this increase and concludes that academics in literary studies need to begin explicitly addressing co-authorship traditions and practices in their discipline.