Coauthoring practices in the processes of thesis supervision. An exploratory study: Un estudio exploratorio

Abstract

Some studies have found that scholars with high performance tend to be those that were encouraged to publish by their professors while they were taking graduate courses. It has also been found that when thesis tutors publish with their students, students seem to better understand the research processes and strengthen their disciplinary identity. In Mexico, there are few studies on thesis-tutoring practices and on the extent to which graduate tutors publish with their students. This qualitative study aimed at exploring the thesis supervision experiences and views on coauthoring of 76 professors of different areas of knowledge at a public university in Mexico. Data came from two open questions sent by email which were examined by the thematic analysis method. The themes that emerged from responses on thesis supervision experiences were: (a) the professors’ workload; the students’ writing abilities; (b) the professors’ supervising abilities. The themes that emerged from the professors’ views on publishing with their students were: (a) the differences between writing a thesis and writing a research article; (b) the incorporation of students into research groups; (c) the value of publication in research training.