This study combines two rapidly growing bodies of literature; one addresses the reasons behind the success of highly productive academics and the second investigates collaborations (international coauthorships in particular). The growing literatures on these two topics mainly involve quantitative bibliometric explanatory studies, denoting the demographic, institutional, and national factors as influential parameters that shape these trends. In this study, in contrast, I employ the notion of agency to analyze 20 in-depth interviews with top-producing academics from Denmark, Israel, and Australia in the fields of education and nanoscience, seeking to better understand the motivations, nature, perceived benefits, and drawbacks of such collaborations. I argue that these highly productive scholars involve themselves in international collaborations for a variety of reasons, but mainly due to the potential of such collaborations to advance their research. However, while scholars in nanoscience align with the disciplinary norms of collaborations and see such partnerships as a mundane part of their scientific work, scholars in education (where international collaborations are less common) perceive these activities as agentic, whereby participants often counteract social norms to pursue joint research. In the context of increasing pressures for accountability, commercialization, and internationalization of and in higher education, this study suggests a nuanced understanding of international research collaborations practiced by highly productive scholars.