Why some academics publish more

Motivation and the ability to network have a far greater impact on research productivity than age, gender, job satisfaction, managerial support or teaching load, writes Matthew Reisz for Times Higher Education.

That is the central conclusion of work by researchers from University College Dublin led by Jonathan Drennan, a lecturer in the school of nursing, midwifery and health systems, which looked at the responses of almost 11,000 full-time academics from 12 European countries assembled for the Changing Academic Profession survey and more recent data obtained by the Academic Profession in Europe: Responses to Societal Challenges project.

Although time spent working on research was unsurprisingly linked with research productivity, "teaching or administrative workloads were not found to be predictors across any of the 12 countries", according to a paper presented at the Higher Education and Social Change Final Conference in Berlin last month.
Full report on the Times Higher Ed site