To be honest, I would not consider the number of publications as a yardstick for getting a good postdoc, but the number of relevant publications to the advertisement placed for the postdoc, which should be about 5-10 for a committee to be convinced that you have become a semi-authority in the area of expertise advertized. Moreso, the pedigree of the school from which you obtained your Ph.D is also a criterion.

In summary, a perfect overlap between your research and technical skills coupled with 5-10 publications with the postdoc requirement gives you an edge over all other applicants for the position.

Moreover, finding a postdoc that totally overlaps your area of research is enough task to start with.

I hope this answers your question to an extent.

As mentioned already above, the number of publications does not say anything about the quality of the paper, and as long as you are not the only author it is also very hard to evaluate how much did you contribute to the paper.

To be frank, I commonly do not have more time to write two papers per year with usually totally different and new topic. Of course, if the topic is always very similar, e.g. like crystal-structure determination, it is quite easy to write tens of papers per year. Also people who deal with time-consuming experiments cannot write continuously papers...except the publish in different papers about more or less the same topic. My time is too valuable to check this for a postdoc. A PhD (usually) cannot be perfect since he/she is still at the beginning of his/her career so that they are commonly EXTREMELY specialized on the topic of their PhD work....and only in very rare cases the same topic fits exactly to the work in another institute. 

It is certainly not bad to have experience with publications but the match to a running project, the personal impression and the knowlegde I can test during the interview is much more relevant for me. 

Personally feel, quality and social oriented research work is necessary for not only a post doc but also for a vibrant society. Never mind on quantity. Good Luck.

I think it completely depends on the quality not quantity of these proposed papers of course based on selection of the indexed trusted journals.

Emad

Never knew that you needed to show how many papers you have published when applying for a postdoc. I think I had none or 1-3 when I first started. I heard from a friend who is a lecturer that you would need at least 10 sci papers as a first author, may be 2-4 papers every year, in order to have a good chance when applying for an academic position.

they are about  5-10 publications with the postdoc

Thanks, everyone to share your knowledge and experience. I think the quality of papers, paper writing skills, knowledge of your research area, these all factor matters to continue the research in reputed institutes. And I will work on that.

Thanks!

Five papers and above in good journals like Elsiver, Taylor and Francis,Springer or journals published by the American Physical Society to mention but a few. The papers must be relevant to the research work you want to carry out as a post doc.,They must be of good quality and you must have contributed significantly to work published.

Thanks and good luck.

There is no strict guideline for the number of papers. Your publications should support that you are familiar with the experimental methodology and characterization techniques that are relevant to the project for which you are applying as a postdoc. Besides, your ability to write proposals and generate funds are considered as bonus point. 

I think it depends on your host. Generally it depends mainly on the quality not on the quantity of your papers.

All the best,

I would like to say some words about the quantity of the papers required for post doc., I think more than 5 papers in impacted journals will be enough or only one paper in Nature or Science will be also enough from my point of view.

Best regards,

@ Mike Osiele

For the sake of the readers, there is an oversight in contribution. It is important to note that Elsiver, Taylor and Francis,Springer are all publishers and not journals.

@ Monika

All have been said. However, in my opinion, this mostly depends on the choice of the host, and the quality and impact of your publication.

All the very best.

Hi Monika,

I can see that you study in USA and that makes a huge difference, I think it is very competitive for PhD students there, so I understand your point. The American students I met at conferences were all so stressed about their work and not having enough papers published. I think it's quite sad that quantity is the factor now, but sadly this is how the academic performance is measured now. My only advise is to stay away from predatory journals and don't pay for publishing your research. Best of luck!

I agree with Agnieszka. Insightful contribution.

I agree with Agnieszka I would just add that when...sitting during the interviews as panel person I heard different opinions but I think that 3 publications look like reasonable for starting post-doc... it is also important to know authors contributions

I think the eligibility depends on the institutional requirements and organization that will fund a post-doctoral fellowship. It differs from place to place but ultimately having one or more papers published in SCI indexed journals can guarantee successfully admission.