> In the end, I think I am making several large contributions, even if the "gestation" time was longer than people would like. To get tenure, you need to publish often and regularly, but a lot of valuable research takes longer than people would like to get results. The data compilation took a long time. I started this data compilation in roughly Jan. 2017. I had a conference presentation on it in Nov. 2017. I published a conference paper based in part on it in May 2018, and it wasn't until December 2019 that I submitted two journal papers using the data. (I prefer to take my time to perfect an article rather than rush it.) This sort of delay isn't acceptable in the current system, regardless of the value of the work at the end. In terms of total publications, I think I'm actually coming out ahead of most PhD students in my department, but by now I'm seen as unproductive by my advisor so that doesn't matter.

This is where I am in my PhD. Things are culminating near the end. It can be psychologically difficult to go long stretches without publication, while your peers are firing off publications. I've seen this with other graduate students who take on large projects.