Table of Contents for Volume 17, 2022, of the International Journal of Doctoral Studies

Aim/Purpose: It is increasingly recognized that doctoral education programs should better support doctoral students. In particular, it has been noted that students experience significant isolation during their PhD, which negatively affects their educational experiences and their personal wellbeing. Doctoral writing groups are collaborative learning communities that have in recent years received in ...

Aim/Purpose: Latina doctoral students’ educational experiences are often mediated by their social class status, race, and gender. Latinas have sustained an increasing presence in doctoral programs at various colleges and universities across the United States; yet, they are continually underrepresented in doctoral programs at predominantly White institutions. The author identifies evidence-supporte ...

Aim/Purpose: This paper explores an intervention approach (in the form of workshops) focusing on doctoral progress, to address the problems of low emotional well-being experienced by many doctoral candidates. Background: Doctoral education suffers from two severe overlapping problems: high dropout rates and widespread low emotional well-being (e.g., depression or anxiety symptoms). Yet, there are ...

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the value of metaphors as part of a reflexive practice in the context of the evolving frame of reference journey of PhD students in a consulting psychology programme. Background: This study reports on the journey of how the personal frames of reference of PhD students in consulting psychology had evolved at a large open-distance and e-learning uni ...

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this study is to use narrative inquiry to discover and understand how Chinese students leverage their strengths and multiple identities in socializing to American higher education and their profession. Chinese students engage with American academic culture while embracing their multiple identities. I will explore the cultural strengths they use to socialize and develop ...

Aim/Purpose: Our study explores the perspectives of international doctoral graduates on ‎‎(national) dissertation assessment in China.‎ Background: In the absence of national standards or in the presence of impractical ones ‎for assessing doctoral dissertations, these factors have inevitably led to what ‎‎Granovsky et al. (1992, p. 375) called “up to standard rejected” and “below ‎standard accept ...

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of the research was to examine the function and application of delimitations—what the researcher includes and excludes in a study—in the dissertation process. The aim was to map the delimitations process to improve research, rigor and relevance of findings, and doctoral completion rates using a formalized and standardized approach applied flexibly. Background: All researc ...

Aim/Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown required doctoral writers to demonstrate resiliency to continue their culminating projects. This study examines the socioecological factors that fostered that resiliency. Background: Resiliency is a key factor in determining whether doctoral writers continue with their culminating projects. Thus far, studies on doctoral student experience ...

Aim/Purpose: This study aimed to explore the challenges faced by international doctoral students in Chinese universities and find out what international doctoral students perceive to be effective supervision. Background: As higher education internationalization is proliferating, there is a need for adjustment in every educational system. Despite the rise in the internationalization of higher educ ...

Aim/Purpose: Doctoral students’ experiences in PhD programs could be a journey of identity evolution. Existing research on doctoral students’ identities has typically been conducted by faculties. As the main character in the identity evolution process, it is critical to understand doctoral students’ interpretation of their own identities and identity development in PhD programs. The purpose of thi ...

Aim/Purpose: The present qualitative study examined the perceptions of Iranian Ph.D. candidates toward the responsibilities and activities that supervisors should take during the dissertation writing. Background: Writing the dissertation is the main concern for Ph.D. candidates. In the view of doctorate students, supervisors are the main contributors to establishing a well-prepared dissertation. ...

Aim/Purpose: This paper explores how professional doctorate candidates responded to the restrictions and changed context of COVID-19. Using connectivism as a theoretical framework, it explores the ways in which their patterns of study were recalibrated in light of the restrictions caused by the pandemic. Specifically, this study aims to: explore the experience of the professional doctorate student ...

Aim/Purpose: The study examines the perspectives of convenors, examiners, supervisors, and candidates to gather their views on the presence of the supervisor in oral examinations (doctoral viva) and to reassess the role of the mainly silent supervisor in the doctoral viva. Background: Supervisors are central to candidates’ doctoral journey, and their roles have been well documented. However, supe ...

Aim/Purpose: This study explores how online writing groups facilitate the academic identity development of doctoral scholars. Background: Academic institutions around the world, and especially in developing societies, are demanding increasing amounts of research and publications from their doctoral scholars. The current study used an online writing group to facilitate writing skills development, ...

Aim/Purpose: This paper presents a quantitative investigation of the organizational factors predicting the attrition of doctoral students’ experience of meaning and how meaningful experience and meaningless work affect doctoral students’ mental health and achievements. Background: Today’s academic environment subsumes neoliberal principles of individualism, instrumentality, and competition. Such ...

Aim/Purpose: This study explores the development of academic identity among a group of Asian international doctoral students at a U.S. research university in various settings, including interacting with students and faculty members and reflecting on their personal journeys. Background: In 2020-2021, 132, 000 international doctoral students enrolled in U.S. universities – an increase of 71% since ...

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify the main conceptualizations of learning space from doctoral students’ perspectives. The aim was to develop a participatory approach to make students’ multiple voices heard. Background: Doctoral experience is viewed as being influenced by social practices of the scholarly communities; learning space in this context is a collective ...

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop instructional rubrics that help in writing and evaluating doctoral dissertation research problem statements. Background: This is a follow up study. In the first paper (Ali & Pandya, 2021), we introduced a model for writing a research problems statement that takes the students through four phases to complete their writing. In this paper, we i ...

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceived efforts, rewards, motives, and coping strategies of a sample of PhD students in Germany based on tested stress models, the Effort-Reward-Imbalance Model and the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping. Background: Pursuing a PhD can be challenging and stressful. Students face conflicts, isolation, and competition as well as diffi ...

Aim/Purpose: Identify the prerequisites, the corequisites, and the iteration processes in organizing and writing the literature review chapter of doctoral dissertations. Background: Writing the literature review chapter of doctoral dissertations presents unique challenges. Students waste a lot of time identifying material to write, and the experience is generally that of frustration and time de ...

Aim/Purpose: To understand the experiences of full-time university professors at a Mexican university who are pursuing a doctoral degree, this study seeks to describe the experiences of doctoral students who are also university professors. The study focuses on the intentions, experiences, and prospects regarding the decision to study for a doctorate as a university professor. Background: This re ...

Aim/Purpose: The main purpose of the study was to find out the influence of information literacy and research self-efficacy on the research productivity of doctoral students in universities in Ogun State, Nigeria. Background: The prosperity of any nation is inextricably tied to its research productivity in both quality and quantity. Hence, doctoral education, among others, is meant to sustain res ...

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effect of expectancy-value beliefs on Algerian doctoral students’ academic burnout. Descriptive-inferential research was adopted to measure the potential association and predictive relationship between the variables of the study. Background: It is commonly known that candidates undertaking a doctoral course experience significant ...

Aim/Purpose: This study aims to understand and assess the self-care perceptions and habits of US domestic versus international graduate students in doctoral programs at an R1 university in Texas. Background: The number of domestic and international students entering doctoral programs in US universities continues to increase each year. However, completion rates within the Ph.D. program remain low ...