Using the participation in peer reviewed publications of all doctoral
students in Quebec over the 2000-2007 period this paper provides the first
large scale analysis of their research effort. It shows that PhD students
contribute to about a third of the publication output of the province, with
doctoral students in the natural and medical sciences being present in a higher
proportion of papers published than their colleagues of the social sciences and
humanities. Collaboration is an important component of this socialization:
disciplines in which student collaboration is higher are also those in which
doctoral students are the most involved in peer-reviewed publications. In terms
of scientific impact, papers co-signed by doctorate students obtain
significantly lower citation rates than other Quebec papers, except in natural
sciences and engineering. Finally, this paper shows that involving doctoral
students in publications is positively linked with degree completion and
ulterior career in research.Comment: 41 pages, 7 figures, forthcoming in Scientometric
