In a dynamically developing scientific environment, there is a tendency toward creating mechanisms that objectively evaluate the output of individual scientific units. Selected indicators can be applied, inter alia, to work out specific criteria for awarding funds for scientific research activities. One of the most important indicators used is the impact of researchers’ publications, which today determines the overall outcome of the evaluation of a research unit. The key question in this context is whether any socio-demographic factors are correlated with the impact of the scholarship work of individual researchers and, if yes, what those indicators are, specifically. The purpose of this study was to determine the existence and, if confirmed, the nature of correlation between the impact of researchers’ publications and selected socio-demographic factors such as: age, gender and family status. The study sample included all the academic employees of the Faculty of Political Sciences and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University, in Toruń (Poland). The results demonstrated that the socio-demographic factors considered showed little correlation with publications’ impactfulness as measured in the Polish evaluation system of research units.

Effectiveness in publishing is currently the most important criterion in the process of the evaluation of scientific and research units in Poland. In the national evaluations system for such units, this criterion has the largest relative impact on their final assessment and rating, on the basis of which, in turn, financial resources are allocated. The key question in this context was what factors are correlated with publication effectiveness of employees in the domain of science?
The aim of the analysis was to determine correlations between selected factors such as an employee’s academic title and position in a scientific unit’s hierarchy or their teaching load and their scientific effectiveness as measured by publications. The study was conducted on the entire staff population of the Faculty of Political Sciences and International Studies at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. As a result, it was found that the selected factors only to a marginal degree were correlated with publication effectiveness in the group studied.