Student and supervisor perspectives on publishing during PhD candidature : towards developing a capacity building model in academia

![CDATA[There is increasing pressure for academic institutions to solve societal problems, engage more deeply in industry-academic linkages and produce PhD graduates who are ready for an industry or academic career pathway. The training of doctoral students is becoming much more focussed on outputs. The academic workplace where new academics are employed is arguably different from that which characterised graduate education in the past. PHD graduates enter an academic workplace where they are expected to demonstrate multiple skills and abilities as they engage in a full range of academic activities that support various institutional missions. An academic’s understanding of the institutional expectations and the development of their capacity to contribute to the institution’s performance begins with the graduate school experience. Publications are an important way for universities to measure personal and institutional performance. However the academic workplace places demands on academics to give priority to other achievements. Consequently writing for publication appears to be an ad-hoc activity for many PhD students. Underpinning this is the capacity of supervisors to support and steer students to publish effectively. This article represents the authors’ experiences of publishing during their PhD candidature from a student and supervisor perspective. The advantages and disadvantages of the publication process are presented as well as the inhibitors and enablers for successful outcomes. The discussion is contextualized within the Australian graduate research education sector. The growing body of literature reimagining doctorate education and in particular the publishing process is considered. We conclude with suggestions on how the authors’ experiences can contribute towards the development of a capacity building model for both PhD students and supervisors in fostering publications by PhD students. The art of publishing is pursued with the philosophy that it is the space dually occupies by the supervisor as academic mentor and the doctoral student as emerging trainee scholar.]]