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I've been wondering how some researchers publish so much in so little time. Like, one famous scholar from MIT published one study per week during the pandemic. For me, it is difficult to believe he's outputting 30-page papers weekly. Were people simply putting his name on their manuscripts?

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  • Welcome to Academia.SE. This is an interesting question, but one that's been discussed a few times already -- see the links above.
    – cag51 ♦
    Commented Jul 13 at 0:03

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I can think of at least two ways to achieve high productivity.

The first is to have lots of projects going on simultaneously, with project books for each of them. Then, if you get stuck on one project, work on another one. An adjunct to this is to carry a notebook or a bunch of note cards with you always, so that if you get a thought on a project you capture it immediately. Even a ride in an elevator can be productive.

The second way is to do lots of collaboration with lots of people. This might also imply lots of projects, of course. But the sharing of ideas can make things happen faster and more solidly. The coffee room at a university department is a powerful productivity tool if people share ideas there.

Publishing one study per week for a while doesn't imply that the projects only took a week from inception to completion.

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    The third, of course, is fraud.
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Commented Jul 12 at 23:51
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    @BryanKrause, that would only be "apparent productivity". I only considered the real thing.
    – Buffy
    Commented Jul 12 at 23:55

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