The First-author Leadership Publication Index: Addressing Authorship Inflation and Research Integrity in Academic Evaluation

The First-author Leadership Publication Index: Addressing Authorship Inflation and Research Integrity in Academic Evaluation Version 1.0, February 2026 Dr. Walid Al-Shaar Novum Research and Innovation, Beirut, Lebanon walid-al-shaar@hotmail.com, walid.al-shaar@novumrig.com ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6822-8245 Abstract: Unearned and honorary authorship practices have been documented as pervasive ethical violations threatening the integrity of scientific publishing. In many cases, senior and even other faculty members, head of departments, and influential researchers have had their names appended to manuscripts despite negligible intellectual contributions, a practice that distorts productivity metrics and undermines legitimate scholarship. A novel bibliometric indicator called the First-author Leadership Publication (FLP) Index is proposed herein, mathematically defined as N × (F%)², where publication count is represented by N and first-authorship proportion by F%. Through quadratic weighting of first-authorship concentration, systematic differentiation between researchers who consistently lead independent investigations and those whose publication lists are inflated through unearned co-authorships is enabled by this metric. Analytical comparisons among different hypothetical researcher profiles disclose that different FLP values are generated for researchers with the same total number of publications but divergent authorship patterns. The mathematical properties of this metric, as well as its relationships to established bibliometric indices, are then examined. Furthermore, potential applications in discontinuing authorship manipulation are proposed. With particular emphasis on contexts where authorship abuse has been identified as problematic, implementation procedures to integrate this novel metric into research assessment processes are proposed. Through explicit quantification of first-authorship leadership, an additional safeguard against productivity inflation through inappropriate authorship assignment is provided. Keywords: authorship ethics, gift authorship, honorary authorship, research integrity, bibliometrics, first authorship, authorship inflation, academic misconduct.