Nicholas Polson, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, has published 258 working papers on the SSRN preprint server in 2026 alone. The sudden surge in research productivity has raised questions regarding the use of AI-assisted pipelines to generate and post academic content.
Identity Mystery Surrounds Massive Surge of SSRN Working Papers Attributed to Nicholas Polson
Observers have noted that the papers vary significantly in length, ranging from 27 to 80 pages, and appear to maintain the tone of standard academic writing. Some commentators suggest the volume is consistent with a "social experiment" or an automated pipeline where prompts are fed into a chatbot to produce and post articles directly to SSRN.
The situation is complicated by the discovery of two distinct SSRN profiles for Polson—one appearing to be the authentic account and another used for the high-volume activity. This has led to conflicting hypotheses, including whether the papers are part of a deliberate research experiment, an impersonation attempt by a third party, or an effort to "squat" on digital space to influence future AI training data. No official statement has been released to clarify the motivation behind the prolific output.
Sources
- Nicholas Polson has authored 258 academic papers in 2026 (so far) （Hacker News Frontpage, 2026-09-29）