Table of Contents for Volume 21, 2026, of the International Journal of Doctoral Studies

Aim/Purpose: This study presented a scoping review of the context, key structural components, and publication requirements of Canadian doctoral compilation dissertations. Background: The compilation model is an emerging alternative to the traditional monograph format, potentially increasing author publication credits and enhancing skill development. However, this relatively new dissertation mode ...

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this article is to provide doctoral research supervisors with a practical pedagogical toolkit for guiding students toward modern estimation thinking and precision-based sample planning. The toolkit is intended to reduce over-reliance on null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) and to enhance dissertation interpretability, reproducibility, and meta-analytic value. Backgr ...

Aim/Purpose: Despite growing research on doctoral students’ emotions and researcher identity, little is known about those aspects among international doctoral students. To bridge such a gap, this study explored the lived experiences of navigating emotions in relation to the researcher identity of international doctoral students through the working lens of the Perceptual Control Theory, as revised ...

Aim/Purpose: This study examined how academic stress is associated with impaired doctoral socialization through burnout, and whether psychological resilience buffers this process differently across ethnic groups. Background: Research suggested that approximately one-third of doctoral students worldwide reported depression or anxiety symptoms. Yet no study has simultaneously examined burnout as a ...

Aim/Purpose: This study examines how Executive Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) graduates construct the value and legitimacy of the degree across professional and academic identity boundaries. Background: Executive DBA programs have expanded within AACSB-accredited business schools in the United States as part of a broader international growth in professional doctorates in management. Whil ...

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this paper is to offer a theory-based model to investigate the power differential in the Ph.D. advisor-advisee relationship in laboratory-based sciences in the United States (U.S.) and to use it to shed light on the pertinent dependence and power dynamics in this relationship. Background: Unsuccessful outcomes of Ph.D. students, such as attrition, low completion rates, pro ...

Aim/Purpose: Mentoring is an important way to promote graduate STEM student success, yet scant research has focused on both mentor and mentee experiences, or international graduate students. The focus of this study was to address this gap by gaining an understanding of the mentoring experiences of former international and domestic graduate STEM students in the U.S. and how their graduate advisors ...

Aim/Purpose: This study explores how first-year doctoral students and their family members understand and navigate the role of family support in doctoral education. The objective is to examine how family involvement, motivational beliefs, and perceptions of academic competencies affect student persistence, particularly among historically underrepresented and first-generation doctoral students. Ba ...

Aim/Purpose: To examine how professional doctorate supervisors cultivate reflexive supervisory practice, addressing a gap in the doctoral studies literature regarding structured tools for developing person centered supervision. Background: This paper addresses this gap by examining how the POWA model (Perspective, Other-centeredness, Willingness to learn, and Accurate self-assessment) can scaffol ...

Aim/Purpose: This qualitative study examines how dissertation chairs conceptualize and enact leadership and mentoring practices that support doctoral students’ persistence and progression toward degree completion during candidacy. Guided by the Intersectional Path-Goal Mentoring Framework (IP-GMF), the study explores how dissertation chairs describe clarifying pathways, reducing barriers, and supp ...

Aim/Purpose: Doctoral students increasingly use Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) as an informing resource, but its benefits, challenges, and governance requirements remain underexplored in developing-country contexts such as Botswana. This study examines GenAI’s contribution to doctoral research and the institutional measures needed for its ethical and effective integration. Background: ...

Aim/Purpose: This study investigates the mediating role of burnout in the relationship between supervisory support and the psychological well-being of Moroccan doctoral candidates. Background: Profound economic and social transformations have reshaped the scientific landscape, intensifying academic demands. Consequently, doctoral candidates, as central actors in this dynamic process, must navigat ...