Increasing discrepancy between absolute and effective indexes of research output in a Brazilian academic department

We investigate possible effects from a strong encouragement for a large number of publications on the scientific production of a Brazilian cell biology department. An average increase in individual absolute production and a concomitant decrease in individual participation in each paper were detected by traditional bibliometric parameters, such as number of publications, citations, impact factors and h index, combined to their “effective” versions, in which co-authorship is taken into consideration. The observed situation, which might well represent a national trend, should be considered as a strong warning against current criteria of scientific evaluation heavily based on uncritical counting of publications.