engleski

International publishing and collaboration as a measure of a PhD program quality: an Osijek experience

Introduction. It becomes increasingly clear that the evaluation and comparison between PhD programmes is extremely complex and requires a multi-sided approach. However, there is a positive side to this incoherence, too. PhD students can benefit of international trainings during their PhD programme, acquiring complementary skills and participating in different work organisation schemes. Materials and Methods. The aims of survey were to assess the international publishing and international collaboration of PhD students at the Faculty of Medicine Osijek with fellow scientists abroad during the PhD programme. A survey, asked for their number of publications alone or in collaboration, their abroad training, and their attitudes towards such collaborations. A total of 15/46/ students were included in the survey. Results. Fifteen out of the 46 PhD students surveyed, have participated in some sort of international training in an abroad lab. The internationally collaborating group of PhD students have published almost 3 times more papers than the domestic only group (3.4 articles compared to 1, 219). Majority of students have spent either less than 3 months abroad, either over 12 months. Surprisingly, the average number of publications is also the highest in these two ends: students which have spend between 3-12 months abroad have the smallest number of publications. Discussion and conclusion. The results show that the most fruitful time to in the abroad training in terms of international publishing is either less than 3 months, either 2 years and longer. Still, there are many other positive sides to this kind of collaboration, namely, acquiring new skills, learning about new methods, exchanging ideas with fellow scientists and setting further collaboration with the new contacts as the most valued. Finally, over 80% of our surveyed students stated they find their abroad training very important for their career, and over 90% considers it extremely important for their thesis research. All of the PhD candidates would definitely recommend this kind of collaboration to a fellow student.

publishing; PhD students;

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