Publication and editorial feedback experiences of doctoral students in counselor education

Abstract

Preparing doctoral students to be well-rounded researchers who are capable of conducting research and publishing articles in refereed journals is one of the most critical objectives of counselor education programs. Despite this, the lack of scholarly productivity among counseling scholars, including counselor educators and doctoral students, continues to be a problem in the profession. Also, research on doctoral students' research and publication has been scarce in counseling literature. Moreover, the current literature largely fails to communicate the perspectives of doctoral students, as it reflects only the counselor educators' perspectives on research training. This phenomenological study investigated the shared experiences of twelve doctoral students in CACREP-accredited programs, regarding research and publication, including the editorial feedback process. The research question that informed and guided this study was: What are the lived experiences of doctoral students in counselor education programs during the publication and editorial feedback process? This study specifically aimed to examine doctoral student researchers' challenges, the support they received, critical incidents that occurred, as well as their meaning-making of those experiences during the entire process of research and publication. Data collection included two rounds of semi-structured interviews, two online focus groups, and written responses to two open-ended questions. Data analysis followed the procedures of phenomenological data reduction, including open-coding and horizonalization. Through individual case summaries and the seven themes that were derived from the twelve participants' stories, this study illustrated how doctoral students made meaning of their experience with regard to the publication and editorial feedback process. The findings that vi emerged included the research climate/culture of both the counselor education profession and counselor education programs, as well as the support and resources that doctoral students received or needed. The findings also indicated doctoral students' motivations to conduct research, and their learning experiences that contributed to their development as independent researchers. Finally, the meaning making of being a doctoral student researcher was described. Based upon these research findings, implications were provided for doctoral students, counselor educators, counselor education programs, journal editorial boards, and future research.