In this research, we analyze the relationship between publishing productivity and access to highly prestigious journals, treating publishing in top journals as a stratification mechanism selecting publishing elites. We study N = 144,314 Polish scientists publishing for 30 years (1992-2021) and their Nart = 433,546 unique research articles published in the period. Using bibliometric data from Scopus, we compare the scientists belonging to the top productivity decile (the upper 10%, termed top performers) and the remaining population of scientists (90%) by discipline and period (five six-year periods). We measure the share of publications in prestigious segments of journals, with particular reference to the 90th-99th percentiles, and we use nonlinear journal prestige-normalized productivity. Our results indicate that access to top journals (defined as the top 10% of journals indexed in Scopus) is powerfully and permanently concentrated in the group of top performers in all disciplines and periods studied. The differences between top performers and the other scientists are primarily of a qualitative nature: they are seen almost exclusively at the top of the journal hierarchy rather than in its bottom or middle segments. Our logistic regression models indicate the complementarity of quantity and quality: publishing intensity increases the probability of membership in the elite segment of top performers, especially when it is coupled with publishing in prestigious journals. Our results suggest that top journals function as selection gates to academic careers and that they function as durable mechanisms of elite reproduction in science.

翻译：本研究分析了出版生产力与顶级期刊获取之间的关系，将顶级期刊发表视为筛选学术精英的分层机制。我们考察了N=144,314名波兰科学家在30年间（1992-2021年）的出版活动及其在此期间发表的Nart=433,546篇独特研究论文。基于Scopus文献计量数据，我们按学科和时段（五个六年期）比较了位列生产力最高十分位（前10%，即顶级学者）的科学家与其余90%科学家的差异。研究测量了期刊声望排名前10%至前1%区间的出版份额，并采用非线性期刊声望归一化生产力指标。结果表明，在所有学科和研究时段中，顶级学者群体始终且显著地垄断着顶级期刊（Scopus收录前10%期刊）的获取权。这种差异本质上是质性的：其集中体现在期刊等级体系的顶端而非中低端。逻辑回归模型揭示了数量与质量的互补性：高出版强度能提升进入顶级精英阶层的概率，尤其是当此强度与高质量期刊发表相结合时。本研究结果表明，顶级期刊充当着学术生涯的筛选门槛，并作为科学精英再生产机制稳定运作。