  Using data retrieved from the INSPEC database we have quantitatively
discussed a few syndromes of the publish-or-perish phenomenon, including
continuous growth of rate of scientific productivity, and continuously
decreasing percentage of those scientists who stay in science for a long time.
Making use of the maximum entropy principle and fluctuation-dissipation
theorem, we have shown that the observed fat-tailed distributions of the total
number of papers x authored by scientists may result from the density of states
function g(x;\tau) underlying scientific community. Although different
generations of scientists are characterized by different productivity patterns,
the function g(x;\tau) is inherent to researchers of a given seniority \tau,
whereas the publish-or-perish phenomenon is caused only by an external field
\theta influencing researchers.
