The increase in authorship of nuclear physics publications has been investigated using the large statistical samples. Large collections of bibliographical metadata represent a very powerful tool for understanding of the past, present, and, perhaps, future research trends. This has been accomplished with nuclear data mining of nuclear science references and the experimental nuclear reaction databases. The data analysis shows a strong anticorrelation between authorship increase of experimental papers and overall reduction of measurements due to closures of many small nuclear physics facilities. These findings suggest that article authorship is a very complex phenomenon, and presently-observed increase or "inflation" in authorship could be explained by the adaptation to the changing research environment, in addition to the evolving authorship rules that progressed over the years from very strict to lenient. The results of this study and their implications are discussed and conclusions presented.