Win friends and influence people to boost research productivity

By Matthew Reisz. Age, gender and teaching load 'have little impact' on number of papers written. Matthew Reisz reports
Motivation and the ability to network have a far greater impact on research productivity than age, gender, job satisfaction, managerial support or teaching load.
That is the central conclusion of work by researchers from University College Dublin led by Jonathan Drennan, lecturer in the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems.
Dr Drennan's team looked at the responses of almost 11,000 full-time academics from 12 European countries assembled for the Changing Academic Profession survey and the more recent data obtained by the Academic Profession in Europe: Responses to Societal Challenges (EUROAC) project.