Iranian doctoral students’ shared experience of English-medium publication: the case of humanities and social sciences

The present study was an attempt to explore international English-medium publication in humanities and social sciences in Iran. In so doing, 50 PhD students from 8 humanities and social sciences disciplines, who had already published or attempted to publish in English-medium journals, were requested...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Higher education 2020-08, Vol.80 (2), p.255-271
Main Authors: Nejad, Ali Mansouri, Qaracholloo, Mahmoud, Rezaei, Saeed
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic staff
Barriers
College Faculty
College students
Doctoral Programs
Doctoral Students
Education
Educational Experience
English (Second Language)
English as an international language
Foreign Countries
Graduate students
Graduate studies
Grounded Theory
Higher Education
Humanities
Interviews
Language of Instruction
ORIGINAL PAPER
Periodicals
Policy making
Second Language Learning
Semi Structured Interviews
Social Sciences
Student Attitudes
Student Motivation
Students
Teacher Student Relationship
Writing for Publication
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Summary:The present study was an attempt to explore international English-medium publication in humanities and social sciences in Iran. In so doing, 50 PhD students from 8 humanities and social sciences disciplines, who had already published or attempted to publish in English-medium journals, were requested to write reflection guide accounts and to take part in followup semi-structured interviews. The reflection guide and interview data were analyzed based on the principles of grounded theory research yielding the four major themes of motivations, hurdles, strategies, and call for support. The results indicated that the Iranian PhD students in the fields of humanities and social sciences are strongly motivated to publish in English-medium journals though they face considerable discursive and non-discursive challenges too. Moreover, although they pursue some strategies to rise to these challenges, they could not fight them off on their own and claim support by other more competent academics and officials. The authors also call for a firm action plan to improve the status of English-medium publication in humanities and social sciences. The action plan could count on support from more experienced doctoral students, professors and other university level officials, editors, reviewers, and high-level national policymakers.
ISSN:0018-1560
1573-174X
DOI:10.1007/s10734-019-00478-1