International Journal of Library Science 2017, 6(1): 9-17 DOI: 10.5923/j.library.20170601.02 Collaborative Authorship among Academic Librarians from Federal University Libraries in Nigeria Sarah I. Adegbaye 1,* , Rifqah O. Okunlaya 1 , Blessing Chika Funom 2 , Chinyere Amalahu 3 1 Nimbe Adedipe Library, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria 2 University of Abuja Library, Abuja, Nigeria 3 Tai Solarin University of Education Library Abstract This paper presents a study of collaborative authorship among academic librarians across federal universities in Nigeria and the challenges authors face when engaging in joint writing of a paper/ article. This study is based on self-reported data from the respondents through a survey questionnaire. Librarians from six (6) federal university libraries of the six (6) geopolitical zones in Nigeria were studied. The multi-stage sampling method was used to select the six (6) universities. 138 academic librarians participated in the study out of 146 librarians working in the six federal university libraries selected, giving the response rate of 94.5%. Results revealed that the average degree of author collaboration of academic librarians is 0.73, which clearly indicates its dominance over single-authored contributions. It also revealed that academic librarians have more of co-authored papers than single ones. Academic librarians collaborate more with their colleagues within the same library. Of the 10 reasons indicated by librarians for involving in collaborative authorship, gaining more knowledge ranked highest. The challenges faced by librarians while collaborating with colleagues were not different from those identified in previous studies. Recommendations were proffered upon findings. Keywords: Authorship, Co-authorship, Collaborative authorship, Degree of collaboration, Collaboration, Federal universities, Academic librarians 1. Introduction Librarians in Nigerian university libraries were officially accorded academic status via a circular issued by the National University Commission (NUC) in 1993 (NUC, 1993). In other to justify the academic status accorded librarians, librarians are required to author publications as a prerequisite for promotion and appointment, in the same way as their teaching counterparts. Authorship of publication however, is a reward of hard work and a prime academic currency for the future career of academic librarians, especially in a university setting. Authorship has often been the sole basis for the academic advancement of librarians, as [15] had rightly put it, authorship is the coin of the realm in academia. Authorship is a compass that dictates the course and success of a librarian’s career and confers enormous responsibility. In university settings today, collaborative authorship whether within the same institution or outside institutions within the same country or outside is understood to be tremendously valuable and highly regarded, as it amalgamates skills, knowledge and resources, allows * Corresponding author: sarah_okonedo@yahoo.com (Sarah I. Adegbaye) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/library Copyright © 2017 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved division of labour and the study of more difficult problems, including interdisciplinary ones. It also brings recognition and visibility and increases the network of contacts of the researchers involved. Co-authorship is an end result of various progressions of intellectual exchanges that facilitate the acquisition of skills undertaken within a community of facts and ideas. Despite the limitation of co-authorship measures, many studies have used this technique to investigate collaboration [13, 10]. In some instances, not all the names appearing in a paper are actually responsible for the work and should, therefore, have not shared the credit. This kind of co-authorship is what [10] refers to as conferment of honourary or gift co-authors. It means granting authorship because of authority, prestige, courtesy or out of respect or appreciation for an individual. Some authors do this to increase the likelihood of publication, credibility, or status of the work. Looking at this from another dimension, the reasons for including an undeserved co-author, as pointed out by [19] are pressure to publish, sense of obligation, fear of offending someone, pressure from another co-author, or explicit demand-all in hopes of reciprocation, or gaining favour. The degree of collaboration among academic librarians refers to the ratio of the number of collaborative published papers to the total number of research paper published in Library and Information Science (LIS) journals during a certain period of time.