Facilitating novice researchers in project publishing during the doctoral years and beyond: a Hong Kong-based study

This article examines the existing training that a group of supervisors in Hong Kong provide for their PhD students in helping them publish during their doctoral studies, and preparing them for the publishing demands in the early phase of their academic careers. The supervisors were interviewed about the types of training they provided for their students in handling project publishing. The types of training they described were examined in terms of five domains of competence: (1) in conceiving publishable projects, (2) in project/output management, (3) in research communication, (4) in handling reviewers' comments, and (5) in thesis-publication alignment/transfers. Findings reveal that training was heavily weighted towards research communication and mostly directed at manuscripts-in-progress. Advice on how to handle reviewers' comments was also reported in some of the interviews, making it the second most frequent type of coaching described. Pedagogical implications for the universities in the context under investigation will be discussed.