Explaining scientific productivity variation

Scientific productivity has been used a criterion to assess the scientific merit of individual scholars, academic programs, and institutions. Studies consistently indicate that there exist enormous variations in scientists´ levels of productivity. Explaining the wide range of variation in scientific productivity requires a systematic analysis of the factors which appear to influence the productivity of scientists. This paper discusses general theoretical considerations for explaining scientific productivity. Explanations of scientific productivity have been offered with two perspectives. These are whether the differences in the productivity that are found are attributable to initial differences in the individual background characteristics of scientists or to the organizational environment. Both perspectives have supported their positions with collections of empirical evidence. In this paper, my primary focus of concern is to identify factors explaining publication productivity of scientists. Therefore, other aspects of scientific productivity are not considered.