Publication Trends in Artificial Intelligence Conferences: The Rise of Super Prolific Authors

TL;DR

The paper analyzes publication trends across 11 top AI conferences from 2014–2023, totaling 87,137 papers, to quantify growth in papers and authors and to identify the rise of super-prolific authors. It defines prolific authors as those with at least five papers in the same conference-year and uses conference-site and DBLP data to reveal substantial share of outputs coming from a small fraction of authors, with cross-conference differences such as IJCAI's relative equity due to submission caps. The work discusses implications for authorship policies, workload, and equity, arguing for more sustainable and inclusive practices in AI research. Overall, the findings illuminate a tension between rapid growth in AI scholarship and the need to ensure fair participation, healthy workloads, and responsible authorship norms.

Abstract

Papers published in top conferences contribute influential discoveries that are reshaping the landscape of modern Artificial Intelligence (AI). We analyzed 87,137 papers from 11 AI conferences to examine publication trends over the past decade. Our findings reveal a consistent increase in both the number of papers and authors, reflecting the growing interest in AI research. We also observed a rise in prolific researchers who publish dozens of papers at the same conference each year. In light of this analysis, the AI research community should consider revisiting authorship policies, addressing equity concerns, and evaluating the workload of junior researchers to foster a more sustainable and inclusive research environment.

Figures (6)

• Figure 1: The number of papers published each year in top AI and ML conferences.
• Figure 2: The number of unique authors publishing at least one paper each year in top AI and ML conferences. We counted distinct authors for each conference per year, ensuring that each author was only included once per conference annually.
• Figure 3: The number of authors publishing five or more papers annually in top AI and ML conferences. This reveals trends in prolific authorship across these venues.
• Figure 4: The number of papers published by the most prolific author in a given conference. The most prolific authors are counted separately for different conferences and years.
• Figure 5: The total number of papers published by the most prolific author in a given calendar year across 11 AI conferences highlights their exceptional contribution to the field.