This may vary per discipline but I'm wondering how many published papers is generally accepted as good during the PhD in terms of getting to the viva and also post-doc positions in academia?

There are 2 published papers on which I am a co-author and I'm about to submit another where I am the first author (for my undergraduate work). I'm wondering if I should look to submit more papers during my PhD (I have enough empirical work from my PhD work to date to publish another 2).

Thanks for reading.

GM

I had a single solitary book review when I had my viva - it didn't impact my passing the PhD but it is certainly putting a dampener on my job hunting. Loads of conference papers and teaching experience count for nothing it seems.

Thanks for the message and sorry to here you're not having the best time job hunting. I have loads of conference papers too and teaching experience but with hopefully 15 months to go till submission I'm thinking I could do with prioritising getting some papers out there!

In humanities it's normal for students to have no published papers at all before finishing the PhD. I was unusual in having 2, sole-authored ones. This doesn't cause any problems for the viva, which isn't based on published papers, unless you're doing a PhD by publication. But it does have an impact on future job hunting success. Basically the more papers, of higher impact journals, the better when it comes to looking for post-docs.

I had two before viva and one in the pipeline, though the actual writing was done by my primary supervisor. Having a couple of papers out of your PhD work is about normal (1 to 3).

I produced a further six after viva (aim was to enhance my publication record), authoring these myself with my primary supervisor listed as a co-author in all cases and my predecessor as a co-author on two. A book chapter also resulted from the work with myself as first author, my supervisor as second author and another predecessor plus another researcher listed as co-authors. There's also another free distribution document that never went to press but is available on download.

So two to three is okay, but look to publish more once viva is complete if possible.

Ian

Ian did this get you a job? If you don't mind me asking?

I need to publish more papers. I am ok with book reviews, conference reports, and co-editing a book, but I have published one sole-authored paper so far (need more).

Do you usually talk to your supervisor before you start your research and publish it?

I am planning to conduct small-scale research and then submit it to a local academic journal or give it in a conference.

Sorry, I didn't get to finish the first post (needed elsehwere).

I did two post-docs, but ultimately the extra publications didn't help me. This was partially due to the second post-doc being a horror (I've already talked about that plenty on here - as a warning to others) and personal family circumstances (job hunting obviously had to be put to one side).

However, the jist is that improving your publication record in general improve your prospects in looking for further research positions once your PhD ends. So if you can put out a couple of papers during your PhD and / or perhaps do some more afterwards from your PhD and related material, your CV looks all the more impressive compared to other candidates when competing for those much in demand positions.

Ian