Stimulating Postgraduate Students to Publish their Research

A study was conducted into the research publishing habits of a group of predominantly poultry science students at the University of New England, Australia. The cohort represented individuals from both English and non-English language backgrounds and had varying career experiences About 50% of the respondents viewed publication of their research as important to their career development. While 67% of respondents had presented material at a conference, about 40 % had never published in a peer-reviewed journal, and of those that had published, the material was not from their postgraduate research in 60% of the cases. Eighty-seven percent of the respondents saw the need for training towards publication of their research. The survey was followed by an action research project, in which respondents were taught the basics of writing and publishing research. It is concluded that science faculties would need to incorporate such training in their programmes, to improve the rate of publication by postgraduate students.