I always make the argument that this kind of secrecy is good for the supervisor but bad for the student. They need to get their name out and in front of their next employer probably more than they need that paper at this stage in the career. That's a very broad generalisation but there's an element of truth in it. The other approach is to make the point that they shouldn't make it public if they don't want it public but that isn't as positive and encouraging a tack to take. - Cameron Neylon

don't PhD students normally go on speaking tours before they've defended? Do job talks and all? Some places you get your 3 journal articles before defending instead of afterward. - Christina Pikas

In the UK you're fairly unlikely to get 3 journal articles frankly. Maybe some years later but it would be rare prior to graduation. - Cameron Neylon

In both Aus and US, it's becoming rarer and rarer to graduate without publishing. There's increasing acceptance of the publications-as-thesis method, where you just write an intro essay to your papers and bundle 'em up and call it a dissertation. My (Aus) PhD was not outstanding by any measure and resulted in four papers, all but one published by the time I graduated. - Bill Hooker

Tried to post this comment on your blog, but had problems so adding a comment here instead. Doesn't some of this depend on what the PhD is about. If it's a highly competitive area of research, such a reaction might be understandable but I wouldn't of thought this was the case in Medical Education. I know people who've published papers before completing their PhDs. Medical Education doesn't seem to be catching on to the social and open aspects of technology. ASME and AMEE should perhaps be leading the way on this, but they're not. I think part of the problem is that they still don't really get it. We're still not seeing many people blogging and networking online in medical education. Not sure how we crack this, but we need to keep pressing on. - Natalie Lafferty

I'm with Bill - I went down the "bundle previously published work and call it a dissertation" route. Probably needn't be said that I think scooping is just an academic boogeyman, a story told by profs to younger students to keep their noses to the bench. Like all, there is a grain of truth somewhere, but if you looked at all the ideas that were kept secret by a early stage researcher because they were thought good and novel most would truly be neither novel nor all that good, and best for everyone's career to get the out in the open as soon as possible so they can get past that and move on. - Mr. Gunn

Many thanks for all the comments. I think that those on the blog and Friendfeed show the range of thoughts on this issue. I think it does need to be pointed out that medical education research is different to lab-based disciplines. Doctoral researchers are likely to be based in or taking the approaches of social sciences rather than medical sciences. Researchers, like other education researchers, are often practioners as well, and are often under-taking insider research. This throws up many challenges which I believe we are best being as open about as possible. At medical education research is under-funded, the work carried out by doctoral students is often the highest quality work presented at conferences or published in journals. This isn't early work to be casually dismissed. It is often setting new standards for the integration of theory and practice. Again, I see this as another reason to start sharing learning earlier rather than later. I can see that this is a topic I will be returning too! Thanks again. - Anne Marie Cunningham