Ready to leave the nest? Education graduate students' voices on publishing

Graduate programs typically expect students to publish their scholarly work; however, few researchers have investigated their experiences in publishing. What literature does exist suggests that mentorship through co-authorship is helpful in supporting the development of emerging scholars. Importantly, there were no studies exploring the perspectives of education graduate students regarding their publication experience. The researchers of this article were all affiliated with an education journal run by and for graduate students who encountered student-authors who were not well prepared to engage in the publication process. In order to understand these student-authors’ needs, the researchers conducted a needs assessment through the framework of Experiential Learning Theory (Kolb, 2014). Specifically, this needs assessment provided voice to thirty education graduate students regarding their career aspirations, previous publishing experience, helpful influences, barriers, and needed supports to engage in the publication process. The findings suggested that the students in this needs assessment lacked formal instruction on how to navigate the publication process, and they perceived mentorship from supervisors, when it existed, as helpful. Implications for graduate training based on the findings are also discussed.