Does the human capital of teams of natural science authors predict citation frequency?

This study examines the relationship between citation frequency and the human capital of teams of authors. Analysis of a random sample of articles published in top natural science journals shows that articles co-authored by teams including frequently cited scholars and teams whose members have diverse disciplinary backgrounds have greater citation frequency. The institutional prestige, the percentage of team members at U. S. institutions and the variety of disciplines represented by team member backgrounds do not influence citation frequency. The study introduces a method for evaluating the extent of multidisciplinarity that accounts for the relatedness of disciplines or authors.