Predicting publication productivity for researchers: a piecewise Poisson model

Abstract: Predicting the scientific productivity of researchers is a basic task for academic administrators and funding agencies. This study provided a model for the publication dynamics of researchers, inspired by the distribution feature of researchers' publications in quantity. It is a piecewise Poisson model, analyzing and predicting the publication productivity of researchers by regression. The principle of the model is built on the explanation for the distribution feature as a result of an inhomogeneous Poisson process that can be approximated as a piecewise Poisson process. The model's principle was validated by the high quality dblp dataset, and its effectiveness was testified in predicting the publication productivity for majority of researchers and the evolutionary trend of their publication productivity. Tests to confirm or disconfirm the model are also proposed. The model has the advantage of providing results in an unbiased way; thus is useful for funding agencies that evaluate a vast number of applications with a quantitative index on publications.