using a person-centred approach. We also studied differences between profiles in terms of experienced well-being and perceptions of the learning environment. The participants of our study (n = 664) were PhD students from three faculties at the University of Helsinki, Finland. The Writing Process Questionnaire (Lonka et al., 2014) was used to measure writing conceptions and problematic writing. Well-being was measured by MED NORD, adapted to the doctoral context (Lonka et al., 2008;Stubb, Pyhältö & Lonka, 2011) and Perceptions of the learning environment, using specific items from Dahlin et al. (2005). PhD students with similar patterns of writing variables were identified through latent profile analysis (LPA). We conducted one-way ANOVAs to examine group differences with respect to well-being and perceptions of learning environment. We identified three writing profiles: Growth-Transforming (51%), Ambivalent (40%), and Fixed-Blocking (9%) groups. The Fixed-Blocking group reported a lack of interest the most often and also reported receiving the least feedback. The Growth-Transforming group was the most and the Fixed-Blocking group the least satisfied with their studies. It appeared that epistemic beliefs related to research writing were most decisive in differentiation among PhD students. Blocks were related to beliefs in innate ability. We concluded that although problems in writing are quite common, epistemic beliefs may be even more decisive in terms of successful research writing.

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Studies on how students experience their PhD have been promoted as an indicator to improve doctoral programmes (assessment-oriented) and/or in order to understand how this collective develops in their careers (research-oriented studies). This last group has increased in the last years since researcher development has become a field of research in the context of higher education. In this respect, a database of studies measuring the PhD experience can be useful for researchers. Thus, we conducted a review of 53 empirical studies, focusing only on research that use questionnaires and scales in their data collection, published from 1991 to 2018. Results along these 27 years not only shows the core elements that have been considered traditionally when measuring the PhD experience, but also identifies some gaps and contributes in the clarification of this generic term. Directions for future research are offered.