Marek Kwiek had a Plenary Speech at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Committee of Educational Sciences, on May 18, 2026.
The presentation was titled:
“Astonishing Patterns of Publication Productivity in Science: The Case of 320,000 Scientists from 38 OECD Countries.”
This study was covered by Nature and Times Higher Education:
Nature
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00744-0
Huge analysis of 320,000 careers suggests that productive researchers stay that way
Times Higher Education
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/late-blooming-stem-careers-almost-never-happens
Late blooming in STEM careers ‘almost never happens’
Abstract:
The study focuses on the persistence of research productivity across entire individual scientific careers. We track late-career scientists — that is, researchers with at least 25 years of publishing experience (N = 320,564) — across 16 STEMM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine) and the social sciences, in 38 OECD countries, over a period extending up to five decades. Our OECD sample covers 79.42% of all scientists worldwide with such long publishing careers. We analyze in detail patterns of mobility between productivity classes based on deciles — from the bottom 10% to the top 10% of the productivity distribution — across early, middle, and late stages of scientific careers. Methodologically, we transform a large-scale bibliometric dataset — structured Big Data — into a comprehensive longitudinal data source for the study of careers in global science.
Bio:
Marek Kwiek is a full professor and holder of the UNESCO Chair in Institutional Research and Higher Education Policy at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. In 2022–2024, he was a visiting researcher at the German Center for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW) in Berlin. His work focuses on quantitative studies of science and the sociology of science; his current research interests include women in science, social stratification in science, and global academic elites. His recent articles have appeared in, among others, Higher Education, Studies in Higher Education, Quantitative Science Studies, Journal of Informetrics, and Scientometrics. His research on attrition from global science was covered by Nature in 2024–2025, and his research on productivity was covered by Nature and Times Higher Education in 2026. His most recent book in Polish is Globalna nauka, globalni naukowcy [Global Science, Global Scientists] (PWN, 2022). He has served as an international expert for the European Commission, USAID, OECD, the World Bank, UNESCO, and the Council of Europe. In recent years, he has presented his research widely around the world, including at Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, and Oxford, as well as in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. He is a full member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in Salzburg and a member of Academia Europaea in London. He belongs to the top 2% of the most highly cited researchers worldwide.