Defined among scientists as the smallest amount of
content publishable.
The number of scientists is ever increasing, the body of work done by others they have to master before they can add something new and worthwhile to it increases at a staggering rate, and as a result, it becomes harder and harder for scientists to prove the value of their work.
Science is more and more a mass industry, with a layer of professional management overseeing the process and judging it with measurable quality criteria. The most important of which is the amount of publications and the extent to which they are cited by others. This leads to a pressure to turn the tiniest of ideas into as many articles as possible: the more audiences you sell it to, the more chance it has of being successful somewhere, and the more chance you have of impressing others with a list of publications.
If an article contains more than one publon of original content, the authors are underselling their work.
Also known as the LPU (least publishable unit).