Could small-team science be dying out?

Key Points:

• Analysis of Nature Index data from 2015 to 2024 shows a decline in small-team science, with solo- and dual-authored papers decreasing from 10.8% to 7.1% across the natural sciences, while papers with 3 to 50 authors increased from 88.5% to 92.2%.
• The biological and health sciences exhibit the lowest proportions of small-team papers, with biological sciences dropping from 6.1% to 3.8%, and health sciences maintaining a low rate of 1% for one- and two-author papers.
• The shift towards larger research teams is driven by changes in funding structures favoring interdisciplinary, multicenter collaborations, as seen in the United States, European Union, and China, where large-team science is rapidly expanding.
• Japan is an exception, maintaining a stable proportion of small-team papers due to cultural factors, limited international collaboration, and funding reforms increasing administrative burdens on researchers.
• Increasing scientific complexity and reliance on specialized expertise and expensive shared infrastructure, such as supercomputers, necessitate larger, multidisciplinary teams to produce high-quality research.