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Some publications mention the phone of the corresponding author, e.g. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocw168

Why do some publications mention the phone of the corresponding author? Do readers sometimes directly call the author?

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    Email is the number one way to get in touch with an academic. I would assume that this is not the author's personal phone number, but probably a departmental number. At most it might be an office phone.
    – David
    Commented Aug 5, 2017 at 5:15
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    Likely a hold over from those dark ages before the internet. Actual people, not just telemarketers, used to make phone calls.
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Aug 5, 2017 at 14:58
  • Probably the same reason we include page numbers in citations.
    – Thomas Steinke
    Commented Aug 6, 2017 at 4:15

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So you can call them?

I've been reached out to by readers before via telephone, particularly reporters trying to get a story together, on one of my more media-friendly papers.

It's rare, and phone numbers are hardly stable things (though neither are email addresses), but it's also a pretty close to no-cost addition.

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I believe it is an old tradition when phones where relatively fewer and the numbers are fixed. However, nowadays, the phone numbers are changed frequently. I did included my phone number in an elsevier article once. However, the editors asked me to remove it for the previously mentioned reason. So, I suppose it is not a very good practice. The email, fax and P.B. are sufficient.

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