For a serious answer, this is how it works in my field A researcher gets a grant with 3-7 co-investigators. This generates a bunch of data and other resources that will support 10 or more papers. Coinvestigators and PIs will ask their postdocs and grad students to write up a paper. PIs and co-Is go on every paper...because it's a paper from their grant. Then the 1 to 4 grad students and post-docs go on the paper, depending on their specific material contributions to the work, be it analysis, conception, or execution, or writing. The numbers can stack up.