Imagination and investment: unraveling academic identity in Chinese doctoral candidates’ publishing journeys in U.S. higher education

2.1 Imagined community and identity

An imagined community provides a virtual but ideal context for learners’ identity construction. The construct of identity in sociocultural theory is traditionally interpreted as a way to “reference how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future” (Norton 2000: 5). The negotiation of one’s identity is thus to construct a sense of self by interacting with the real world in multiple sociocultural contexts. However, identity as a psychologically and socially created construct does not have to be always connected to real-life practices. Instead, we try to formulate our ideal blueprints to mentally create so-called imagined communities, which refer to “groups of people, not immediately tangible and accessible, with whom we connect through the power of the imagination” (Norton 2013: 8).

The idea of imagined communities was initially proposed in Anderson’s (1991) discussion of home countries as imagined communities, showing an imagination that we are bonded with our fellow compatriots living in a common nation, sharing a sense of belonging across time and space, and that represents the image of our affiliation to the national community. The community in a broad sense refers to the communities of practice (CoP, Lave and Wenger 1991). In the situated learning theory, Lave and Wenger (1991) regarded first language learning as a social practice. They argued that learning is due to sustained participation in communities of practice, where core members or oldtimers apprentice newcomers or peripheral members into the development of professional practice and values. Learners’ participation from peripherality to legitimacy in language learning thus shows the transition from newcomers to oldtimers in the community. Haneda (1997) further clarified the need to extend this situated learning practice to second or foreign language learning, suggesting that the concept of a community of practice can be adapted to fluent speakers who are members of multiple communities, spanning from the classrooms to wider professional settings. The CoP in that sense is a multilingual context in which all the participants or learners share understandings and resources to work on joint enterprise. Wenger (1998: 176) further developed the idea of imagined community or CoP by associating learners’ imagination to their engagement with communities of practice, arguing that imagination is “a process of expanding oneself by transcending our time and space and creating new images of the world and ourselves”, thus it serves as another type of community. In language learning, imagination is not only an individual activity but also a social process, and it signals learners’ inclination to construct a wider range of identities in more diverse contexts (Pavlenko and Norton 2007). Wenger (1998) considered imagination, engagement, and alignment as three modes of belonging to a community, showing that imagination conveys a sense of visual engagement, but it does not have to do with physical participation in the community. The imagined identity, according to Norton (2010), is a desired sense of self the learners position themselves by connecting to imagined communities. In this sense, learners can exercise their agency to engage themselves into envisioned worlds through the power of imagination. The notion of CoP also offers an understanding of the academic context of doctoral education. For example, Habibie (2016) argued that apprenticeship can be used to understand mentorship for writing for publication, for the reason that supervisors can scaffold doctoral students’ academic enculturation and prepare them to become a legitimate member in the community of practice.

Trentman (2013) explored the alignment of imagined communities among Arabic learners in Egypt and their impact on identity and study abroad investment. He found that imagined communities influence their language production and engagement, posing challenges in local participation as both language learners and cross-cultural mediators. Teng and Bui (2020) studied how imagined communities affect Thai students in an undergraduate program in Guangxi, China. Their findings indicated that misalignments between students’ envision and realities lead to their negative identity negotiation, reinforcing national identities or reconstructing as peripheral host community members. We see the aforementioned studies delve into the construction of undergraduate students’ identities within their imagined communities, specifically emphasizing foreign (or second) language learning experiences. Nevertheless, it is acknowledged that foreign language learning and academic training are intricately interwoven as international doctoral education encompasses the improvement of not just language proficiency but also research skills. Writing for publication stands out as a quintessential practice for doctoral students as novice scholars to project their academic identities, in the context of developing their writing skills and establishing adherence to academic norms, although they may encounter challenges in finding a balance between legitimacy and peripherality within the community of practice (Habibie 2016). Throughout the publishing process, imagination can act as a virtual space for doctoral students to explore and accommodate their perceptions of professionalism and a sense of belonging amidst the evolving dynamics within the forthcoming academic community.

2.2 Investment, capitals, and imagination

According to Darvin and Norton (2015), there exists a theoretical link between investment, capitals, and identity formation. This connection implies that capitals play a crucial role in language learners’ investment by enabling them to acquire both symbolic and material resources. Consequently, this acquisition enhances the value of their cultural capital and social power. Norton (2013) proposed the alternative construct, investment, to distinguish from the traditional psychologically-based concept, (instrumental) motivation, as mentioned in Dörnyei and his colleagues’ work (Dörnyei 2001; Dörnyei and Ushioda 2009). Norton (2013: 3) observed the fact that “a learner may be a highly motivated language learner, but may nevertheless have little investment in the language practices of a given classroom or community where racist, sexist, elitist or homophobic issues exist”. On the other hand, she argued that a learner who makes an investment in language learning tends to be a motivated language learner. In this case, we see investment as a sociological framework complements the psychological construct of motivation, as it connects learners’ desires to their changing identities which can be affected by social environments. As Peirce (1995) mentioned, investment in language learning is similar to an investment in constructing learners’ social identities, as they are constantly organizing their sense of self while exchanging ideas in the social interactions.

Norton and Toohey (2011) contended that learners invest time and effort in language learning within particular contexts, with the expectation of obtaining a variety of symbolic and material resources. These resources can enhance learners’ cultural capital, empowering them to reevaluate their self-perceptions and future aspirations. In this sense, the returns on learners’ investments are crucial, as they can acquire material or economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capitals (Darvin and Norton 2015). Bourdieu (1991) used the term “cultural capital” to indicate knowledge, skills, educational certificates, and modes of thoughts and values that represent different classes and groups. Economic capital encompasses wealth, property, and income. Social capital functions to establish connections within networks of power. Symbolic capital, on the other hand, serves as a means to signify resources such as language, education, and friendship.

The relation between investment and imagined community, according to Norton (2000), lies in the fact that a learner’s imagined identity is grounded in the imagined world, in which a learner’s investment in language learning can be deeply understood. As Kanno and Norton (2003) clarified, learners’ investment in L2 learning can be reflected in their imagined identities, showing desire and expectation to get access to their imagined communities.

By examining language learning, Sung (2019) reported how a male undergraduate student in Hong Kong makes a selective investment in English learning under the influence of different social contexts. The student’s investment is associated with different identities negotiated in different scenarios, including college classrooms, the study abroad program, and the department store. Moreover, the participant’s selective investment is shaped by his desire to get access to the cultural and social capital (e.g., high communicative competence, friendship) through the power of imagination. In terms of publishing, Chang (2011) adopted the concept of investment and cultural capital to examine how the educational backgrounds of two non-native English-speaking (Burnerman and Hou) doctoral students exert agency to impact their choice of investment in the academic community. The study found that whether and how the two students are willing to make an investment depends on their personal academic paths throughout their doctoral studies. For example, Hou’s narrative accentuates the merits of investing in publishing and postdoctoral training in his journey to become a qualified faculty member in his discipline. These processes are essential for gaining professional skills and academic experiences, acting as cultural capitals in his envisioned academic communities. Gopaul (2016) in a similar vein argued that academic publishing, a cultural capital, emphasizes the value for doctoral students to achieve recognition through investment, indicating their competency and language proficiency within academic rules and norms. Achieving the ability to write for publication can thus grant doctoral students autonomy and legitimacy, allowing them to anticipate their roles in academia and imagine their professional identities in future research and teaching endeavors.

2.3 Previous studies on doctoral publishing

The identity studies on doctoral students’ publishing have been well documented over the decades (e.g., Cho 2004; Habibie 2016; Horta and Li 2023; Kamler 2008; Li 2006; Lei and Hu 2019; Ma 2019; Mantai 2017; Xu and Grant 2020). Among these studies, the student population comprises a diverse group of Chinese domestic students and Chinese international students studying abroad, particularly in English-speaking countries. These doctoral students come from various academic backgrounds such as nursing, physics, education, psychology, and other interdisciplinary fields. Several power-infused themes have emerged from previous studies. These themes encompass the use of coping strategies (e.g., co-authoring with supervisors, academic socialization) to facilitate the transformation of their identities from academic apprentices to emerging scholars in journal publishing. Additionally, the studies explored the impact of being a non-native English speaker and the pressure of graduation on their identity development. Similar experiences of identity negotiation have also been observed between domestic students and international students regarding the “publish or no degree” ideology.

Yet, there is a scarcity of research exploring how international students, especially Chinese doctoral candidates, invest in publishing to shape their academic identities within the context of their imagined communities. To date, two dissertations have touched upon this issue. In a multiple-case study, Anderson (2016) investigated how international Chinese doctoral students’ academic discourse socialization influences their academic trajectories and enculturation, with a focus on the field of arts and education at a Canadian university. By concentrating on the academic socialization of returning academic sojourners (haigui in Chinese), he contended that internal (self-perception) and external (from other members of their communities) socialization can impact Chinese doctoral students’ acculturation into their desired or imagined academic communities. For example, one doctoral student (Polar Bear) sought joint publication opportunities (with his advisor) in academic socialization to achieve awards and become a worthy emerging scholar. The constructive support from his advisor and the encouragement to publish, both independently and collaboratively, jointly shaped an imagined identity of academic legitimacy. Similarly, Fazel (2018) studied four doctoral students’ publishing experiences in academic socialization at a Canadian university. He employed the model of investment and imagined communities to argue that doctoral students’ investment in scholarly publishing can conceivably enable them to get access to more symbolic capital (e.g., prestige and recognition) and social power in academia. This publishing process contributes to the progressive construction of these doctoral students’ scholarly identity and sense of belonging to their disciplinary communities, as they make well-informed investments in practices and identities that align with their imaginations.

Collectively, the aforementioned studies revealed that engaging in writing for publication has emerged as a touchstone for the transition of graduate students’ scholarly identity from novice researchers to established scholars. Throughout this process, student researchers usually grapple with anxieties and tensions as they navigate the evolving ways they participate in scholarly practices and conversations within their fields (Lee and Norton 2003). However, the authors utilized theories involving imagined identity and community, as well as investment and capitals, to investigate the positive ways in which international doctoral students confront obstacles and dedicate themselves to publishing in English. As a result of their investment, these students gain access to social, cultural, and economic capitals within the academic sphere.

Although the topic of publishing in these studies is only a sub-branch of the academic enterprise, the primary focus of publishing will provide an in-depth understanding of L2 learners’ academic identity studies in relation to the theory of imagined community and investment. Moreover, there is a dearth of literature investigating the publishing experiences among Chinese doctoral students in Linguistics, a specific discipline that theoretically and empirically explores language and its structure, primarily including the study of morphology, semantics, syntax, phonetics, and phonology. Doctoral programs in Linguistics are commonly found in the R-1 and R-2 universities in the United States, according to the 2021 Carnegie Classification. Graduate assistantships and courseworks offered in Linguistics Ph.D. programs are often research-oriented, which provides a platform for international doctoral students, such as those from China, to advance their own linguistic studies through journal and other publications. The study of the targeted population undergoing the transition from doctoral students to emerging scholars holds inherent value, as the discourses expressed by Chinese doctoral candidates can provide insights into the reconceptualization of identity within the job market, influenced by the interaction between ideality and reality. This opens up the opportunity to investigate doctoral academic identities within scholarly publishing, which is a crucial requirement within the academic job market. To fill the lacuna, this study attempts to answer the following questions:

1. What do Chinese doctoral candidates in Linguistics do to prepare themselves for the job market in relation to scholarly publishing during their studies?

2. How do Chinese doctoral candidates imagine their future academic community in the United States?

3. How do Chinese doctoral candidates navigate their imagined academic identities in the context of their investments in scholarly publishing?

3.1 Research site and approach

The study was conducted at a large public university in the southwest United States, in the academic year of 2022–2023. Zoom-mediated interviews were conducted with four Chinese doctoral students studying linguistics in the United States. To produce a thick description for a complex and comprehensive understanding of the collective case study, I conducted in-depth oral interviews and pre-interview biographical surveys. Data collection included audio and video recordings, as well as biographical information. As Shkedi (2005) clarified, the product of the collective case study is a thick holistic narrative, as it compares several single case narratives. The employment of a collective case approach aligns with this research design, as it encompasses a restricted number (fewer than ten) of case narratives and emphasizes data triangulation through oral interviews and professional artifacts (e.g., CVs, personal websites). The study adopted a narrative inquiry approach, relying largely on the transcripts of the interviews with the participants as the primary source of data for understanding doctoral candidates’ experiences of scholarly publishing. The narrative inquiry has been argued to allow multiple participants to recall and inquire into their unique life stories by “adopting a particular view of experience as a phenomenon under study” (Connelly and Clandinin 2006: 479). Barkhuizen et al. (2014: 5) also noted that narrative inquiry provides a possibility for individuals to “organize their experiences and the identities through which they represent them to themselves and others”. The benefits of utilizing narrative inquiry in unveiling the identities and experiences of storytellers have been highlighted by Sfard and Prusak (2005). In this regard, employing the narrative inquiry can be valuable for individuals seeking to communicate their true selves or convey their intended actions, which are beneficial in interpreting the identities of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. Likewise, this holds true for Chinese doctoral candidates who regularly engage in EFL writing. Each doctoral student, even within the field of linguistics, may have a unique publishing story shaped by individual research focus and educational background.

3.2 Participants

The selected participants are four Chinese doctoral students (pseudonyms: Helen, Lily, Ben, Zack) who are studying Linguistics in four different state universities in the United States. They are currently PhD candidates and are writing or finalizing dissertations in their departments while preparing for the academic job market. They reported having experiences publishing English articles either by themselves or by co-authorship. More background information was summarized in Table 1. The selection of participants was based on purposeful sampling (Daniel 2012), given that (1) the study requires an exploratory purpose to deeply understand doctoral students’ self-perception in terms of academic publishing; (2) the academic expertise and experience from targeted and homogeneous population (Chinese doctoral students in U.S. universities, with Chinese as their native languages and linguistics as their educational backgrounds) are required to answer my questions about international publishing; (3) the collective case study, with limited access to financial resources, investigates the surveys and interviews with four Chinese students who represent the specific group of population. Initially, I recruited and collected data from eight Chinese doctoral students as participants. However, the distinct patterns that emerged from the discourses of the four students underscored their individuality and profound experiences. The selected cases, based on my own experience as a linguist, can better reflect the inner voice of Chinese doctoral students in the field of Linguistics.

In many aspects, I am a close listener and sincere helper to the four doctoral students, i.e., we are both native in Chinese and share a common research interest in the field of applied linguistics. Currently, we are actively exchanging information regarding faculty positions and their applications within the academic job market. During these discussions, I have been attentively listening to their job-hunting experiences and providing them with valuable suggestions. These experiences help me better understand their inner voices in the job market, with the goal of developing rapport and creating opportunities for this highly interactive and dialogic research. Through our interactions in both offline and online linguistics conferences, I have fostered a strong and enduring relationship with them. With their keen interest in my study, they readily granted their consent to share their personal stories for research purposes.

3.3 Data collection

My qualitative data was obtained from participants’ responses to surveys and interviews, my observations during the interviews, as well as my reflective notes. I first used an online survey, designed by Google Forms, to collect biographical information (e.g., pseudonym, age, gender, first and second language, experiences in publishing) from each participant. Immediately after they finished the surveys, I conducted semi-structured oral interviews to record their responses to my predetermined questions, and I also asked several follow-up questions to gather further clarifications. Questions for the oral interview were grouped into three sections: preparation for publishing for the job market, comparison between the current situation and imagined academic community, and the relationship between the imagined community and investment in academic publishing. Twenty-seven open-ended guideline questions (including sub-branches) were finalized to collect qualitative data from these students’ publishing stories, as shown in the Appendix. Each time, I conducted each interview with each participant in Chinese (my native language) to ensure that our conversations were natural and relaxed. This approach allowed me to maximally gather relevant information and effectively detect emerging attitudes and feelings from the participants.

The benefit of using the semi-structured interview, according to Dörnyei (2007: 136), is its “format is open-ended and the interviewee is encouraged to elaborate on the issues raised”. Another reason for using the semi-structured interview is that it can provide more space for participants to deeply express their thoughts and feelings and it also grants researchers the flexibility to ask follow-up questions to fill in the missing information from previous questions. To keep track of changes that had occurred in the four participants’ job-seeking experiences in the last year of their doctoral programs, I conducted the first phase of interviews (four times) in the Fall of 2022 and the second round of interviews (four times) in the Spring of 2023. The duration of each oral interview averaged around 1 h. Data was saved in the form of both audio and video recordings, and audio recordings were then uploaded to Otter.ai (https://otter.ai/home) the online platform, to assist with my English translation into searchable texts. Each participant was interviewed once during each phase, resulting in a total of eight transcribed texts for manual coding in my data analysis.

3.4 Data coding and analysis

Coding starts with the emergent and interactive process of analyzing data in grounded theory (Charmaz 2008). I managed my qualitative analysis using NVivo 11, a software tool for coding unstructured data. I initially conducted by reading and rereading the interview transcripts of each participant to understand crucial comments and ideas, aiming to learn more about any experience of doctoral publishing that emerged (Guest et al. 2014) in the conversations. I then used open coding to read my data word-by-word and line-by-line, and to label concepts and categories with respect to doctoral students’ identity construction in the process of publishing. To be specific, I selected relevant sentences for preliminary grouping, then I examined these sentences to formulate different types of meanings, and grouped similar meanings together under a single theme. By doing so, I reduced the codes to a more manageable number to assist with constructing tentative categories and to further refine the themes (Merriam and Tisdell 2015). The tentatively identified themes encompass various aspects, such as selective investment in publication types, the significance of seeking guidance from supervisors and peers, distinctions between English native speakers and Chinese international students in publishing, strategies for publishing in English, the disparity between the present circumstances and the envisioned academic community, and the like. After gaining a holistic overview of my interview data, I used axial coding to further identify and group recurring and meaningful patterns that touch upon my research questions. I also conducted an inductive thematic analysis to gain a deep understanding of these patterns or themes, when it comes to the impact of imagined identity on investment in publishing, including being a responsible and achieved scholar in Linguistics, and being a realistic scholar when there is a misalignment between imagination and reality. Selected coding was employed in the end to integrate similar themes by considering the close relationships among them. The theoretical saturation (Corbin and Strauss 2014) was met when no new aspects of categories were identified from previous themes, after a final thorough analysis. To ensure the validity and reliability of my transcribed data, I conducted member checking by inviting all my participants to proofread their responses to my questions in their interviews. Any misinterpretation confirmed by participants was either corrected or excluded from my data to ensure that all transcribed data accurately reflected their intended meaning.

4.1 Active and strategic writers in scholarly publishing

All four participants focused their attention on the advantages of collaboration, engagement, and effective strategies in preparing for writing and publishing. Helen, in her initial interview, highlighted the value of a weekly online writing group during the pandemic, which helped her discover significant research topics and maintain consistent collaboration with peers. This underscores the long-term nature of academic writing, requiring regular engagement. Additionally, Helen recognized the value of cooperation as a strategy in journal publication, seeking feedback from experts at conferences and colleagues both within and outside her institution. In the interview, she stated:

When I prepared for my first paper, I joined a weekly writing group organized by the Department of Second Language Studies. Based on our common interests, I worked with another student to research a pragmatic topic. We also presented this study at different conferences and collected feedback from colleagues in and outside our school […].

(First interview with Helen, 19 November 2022)

Lily also spotlighted the importance of co-authorship in academic writing, particularly the collaboration between advisors and students. She benefited from her advisor’s research ideas and theoretical guidance. She said:

My second linguistic paper was co-authored by my advisor and me. The idea came from my advisor’s research project, and I further developed his project into a publishable paper. He guided me through the theoretical examination although he did not spend too much time working on my paper. (First interview with Lily, 20 November 2022)

The same ideas were found in Zack’s co-authoring experiences, where he learned from team members’ areas of expertise in distributed collaboration for scholarly publishing:

Through collaboration, I not only gained knowledge of programming coding from computational linguistics but also improved my cooperative competence when drafting the paper with other professors and research assistants.

(First interview with Zack, 25 November 2022)

Ben from another perspective accentuated the responsibility and motivation of being a project leader for paper writing, as he mentioned:

As a project leader, I benefited a lot from group discussion and data analysis. However, I would be more motivated to be the first author, if I initiated the research and contributed largely to this project […]. (First interview with Ben, 19 November 2022)

The narratives shared by the aforementioned doctoral students unveiled their self-identification as proactive writers pursuing collaboration with supervisors and peers across diverse settings. These findings align with prior studies (e.g., Belcher 1994; Cho 2004; Habibie 2016; Li 2006, 2007) that called attention to the significance of seeking guidance from seasoned scholars to enhance the prospects of successful publishing.

An additional strategy for academic publishing is wholehearted dedication, which involves maximizing time for paper drafting. Helen emphasized her commitment by utilizing summer or winter breaks for academic writing. Lily acknowledged the challenge of balancing teaching and research but she featured the proverbial notion that time, like a wet sponge, produces more water when squeezed. Their responses highlight the inherent requirement of investment in writing for publication, with the belief that time and effort will ultimately yield valuable returns.

[…] It is hard to calculate the amount of time I used for my paper writing, but I always have time to do research, especially in the summer, or winter, if I want to devote myself to academic writing. (First interview with Helen, 19 November 2022)

[…] I had to teach a linguistic course and took several courses at that time, so I don’t think I had too much time working on my own paper, but I think if you want to do research, you can always find free time […] (First interview with Lily, 20 November 2022)

Some effective strategies were also mentioned by the participants for dealing with reviewers’ feedback. For example, Helen in her first interview accentuated the tips used to respond to reviewers in journal publication, such as being sincere and responsible to read and answer every single question. This suggestion was also shared by Lily, who discussed the importance of having a careful attitude in handling reviewers’ feedback. Helen employed an additional strategy by seeking guidance from scholars in her field, including her advisor, conference attendees, and professors from other institutions. She said:

My understanding of submitting papers to journals benefited from an experienced student in applied linguistics. She generously shared one of her responses to reviewers in her paper submission. The key I learned is to write as detailed as possible to show my sincerity and responsibility to reviewers’ comments. Another approach I took was to seek feedback from conference attendees, as suggested by my advisor. I also approached a professor who I only met once at a local conference. Surprisingly, he helped read the initial draft of my paper and provided constructive suggestions, since his research focus is exactly in my field.

(First interview with Helen, 19 November 2022)

Lily, however, underscored the significance of selecting a suitable journal to ensure a successful publication. Submitting papers to inappropriate journals could result in strong rejection due to misaligned approaches and methodologies. She particularly discussed skillful coping strategies for addressing reviewers’ negative comments. For instance, she mentioned the importance of understanding reviewers’ tones and preferred perspectives, which could enhance the acceptance rate. Additionally, there was a need to manage one’s emotions before formulating responses to reviewers’ feedback in the event of rejection. Like she said:

I think the most important thing for paper publication is to find a suitable journal that considers papers with preferred methods and theories. If you submit your paper to a journal that does not match your area of expertise, you will be mostly rejected with negative comments […].

Sometimes you need to learn how to control your emotions and maintain a positive attitude towards major revisions or rejection. For example, take a moment to calm down and carefully read reviewers’ comments before writing your responses […]. It is also helpful to guess reviewers’ research backgrounds based on their suggested readings, as it might indicate their favored perspectives. (First interview with Lily, 20 November 2022)

The strategies employed by the participants in journal submissions are coherent with discussions of the traumatic aspects of receiving negative comments (e.g., Habibie 2016) and lack of timely feedback from experts (e.g., Simpson 2013). What’s different is that these strategies, such as the submission to a fit journal, the speculation of reviewers’ viewpoints and tones, along with sincere and thorough responses to reviewers, can complement the discussion of publishing skills in previous studies, including modeling expert writers’ articles (e.g., Li 2007) and seeking suggestions from advisors (e.g., Kwan 2010, Li 2016) to improve academic writing in English. The use of writing strategies might suggest that the participants identified themselves as strategic writers (e.g., being prudent, engaged, and sincere) because they were signaling how to be patient and careful with reviewers’ comments and how to maximize their chances to turn revised papers into publishable ones.

The publishing skills of the four doctoral candidates revealed the significant influence of distinct life trajectories on the construction of their academic identities, through diverse avenues of investment or engagement in publishing. While these students navigated diverse identity trajectories in their publishing pursuits, it is evident that early-year doctoral students can greatly benefit from cooperation and learning from peers as a means of investing in co-authored and high-quality publications (e.g., Horta and Santos 2016; Jung et al. 2021). Additionally, gathering advice from seasoned scholars and collecting feedback from writing groups or conferences can largely improve the quality of academic writing, thus increasing chances of being published in prestigious journals. The findings are in tandem with previous studies (e.g., Cho 2004; Ho 2017; Li 2005, 2006, 2007, 2016; Lei and Hu 2019) on improving doctoral publishing, showing that comments and suggestions from supervisors and other experienced scholars are beneficial in guiding novice or emerging scholars (esp., graduate students) to draft and revise manuscripts for journal submission.

4.2 Being a responsible and achieved scholar in the imagined academic community

The publishing experiences of the four interviewees collectively underscored their eagerness to attain success through both collaboration and individual authorship in their envisioned academic pursuits. Specifically, the data from Helen and Lily illuminated their strong motivation to evolve into accomplished scholars marked by a sense of responsibility in their envisioned future careers. Helen in her first interview strongly showed her motivation and responsibility to share her knowledge with peers, in order to make her voices heard through academic publishing. She was hoping to be a scholar being honored and recognized by peers. Her imagination indicated that her continuous investment in academic publishing would contribute to her being a responsible and achieved scholar, thus obtaining social (academic network), cultural (degree diploma and writing skills), economic (stable income), and symbolic capitals (be honored and popular) in her academic life. This confirms the multiple benefits of doctoral publishing in the higher education context (e.g., Anderson 2016; Fazel 2018; Hyland 2009; Lei and Chuang 2009; Li 2016). She mentioned:

I just feel I will give passionate presentations and be happy to collaborate with peers in the ideal academic environment. More importantly, I will be responsible for sharing my own ideas in my published works, which might enlighten more relevant studies, and to make my voice heard and discussed by others in academia […]. You will have a strong sense of achievement if you are invited to give a keynote speech or conference presentation […]. If I end up being an assistant professor, I will definitely be motivated to regularly publish papers by learning from and working with graduate students, in order to get promoted to tenure with more satisfactory salaries.

(First interview with Helen, 19 November 2022)

From another perspective, Lily demonstrated her expectation of being responsible for advancing knowledge in her independent academic life. In the second interview, she particularly foregrounded the fact that doing research and publishing papers were like “durative enjoyment” in exploring linguistics as her academic career. In this regard, Lily projected herself as a dedicated scholar whose life was continuously motivated by publishing her ideas. She said:

My imagination of the academic community is the situation where I can be autonomous and self-willed in doing my own research after I receive my Ph.D. degree. My great motivation is to enjoy the exploration of the linguistic world, especially how the Chinese writing system can influence the linguistic structure of Chinese. Nothing can bring me such a durative pleasure than doing linguistic research, which leads to my dedication and engagement in my academic publishing […]. My eventual contribution is to advance knowledge in the linguistics field. (Second interview with Lily, 04 April 2023)

The identity conceptualization in these participants’ imagination revealed that academic identity, positively constructed within an imagined community, can drive doctoral candidates to invest in publishing, acquiring symbolic and economic capitals. Despite variations in the ways these students constructed their identities through different investments, they all envisioned themselves as responsible and accomplished scholars in their imagined future. Notably, it is the imagined community of practice that motivates these students to invest themselves in the process of publishing, despite the potential challenges of peer-review interactions. The anticipated returns for their investments, as previously mentioned, include the acquisition of symbolic and economic capitals for future career prospects. In Helen’s case, for instance, a satisfactory salary represents economic capital while the honor and independence of being an assistant professor index the symbolic capital to some extent. This aligns with the relationship between investment and imagined identity explored by Kanno and Norton (2003), emphasizing the pivotal role of positively imagined identity in driving young scholars to invest in academic communities where they can access both symbolic (honor and independence) and economic capitals (satisfactory salary). The findings reaffirm the conclusions of previous studies (e.g., Anderson 2016; Chang 2011; Fazel 2018; Lee and Norton 2003; Lei and Chuang 2009) on graduate (including doctoral) students’ investment in writing for publication, highlighting the value of academic publishing is to yield social and cultural capitals (academic networks, professional skills), economic capital (grants and income), plus symbolic capital (prestige).

4.3 Being a realistic scholar when imagined community misaligns with reality

All participants reported their own strategies for navigating their identities amid the incongruity between imagination and reality within the field of linguistics. However, the data from Ben and Helen appeared contrasting yet offered insights that could be generalized to the diverse mindsets of international doctoral candidates in terms of research output. The misalignment between imagined community and reality in Ben’s story indicated he would continue publishing activities although his academic competence was limited. In this sense, Ben appeared to redefine his identity, transitioning from a dedicated scholar to a more realistic scholar. However, he used “inner voice” to express his great expectation for the tenure position (a role involving both teaching and research) when his imagined community did not align with the reality (a temporary and teaching-only position). This suggests that while he demonstrated a steadfast commitment to his identity as a dedicated scholar, passive adaptability to changing circumstances is also needed. He stated:

I think no matter how competitive the job market is, following my inner voice (seeking a tenure-track position) is important. The reality is my current job position is temporary, only for teaching, publishing is not a requirement, but I hope to find a permanent job in a liberal arts college, where I have time for half teaching and half research […].

I like to do research and publish my thoughts. However, I sometimes had to be passively flexible [laugh] in the job market and think about what I could do but not something beyond my ability […]. (Second interview with Ben, 05 April 2023)

Compared with Ben’s story, Helen’s experiences suggested that she was a more realistic person who flexibly or adaptively constructed her scholarly identities in different situations. For example, Helen acknowledged that if there were significant disparities between her envisioned life and reality, she would prioritize meeting her basic needs by pursuing non-academic employment. In this situation, she might temporarily deviate from her research endeavors, including publishing. However, she would still retain her capacity to generate academic output even if the position primarily focused on teaching. She told me:

It depends on how big the gap is between my expected academic life and my current situation. If the gap is too big (cannot find any academic jobs), then I would consider how to survive first. It is thus possible that I would find a job in a company if I cannot find a job in the academic job market. In that case, I probably won’t have much time to focus on publishing. However, if the gap is acceptable, for example, I got a Chinese teaching job (e.g., lecturer) eventually, I would still seek my availability to publish papers on a regular basis.

(Second interview with Helen, 02 April 2023)

To summarize, in the case of Ben, despite his commitment to academic publishing, he redirected his goals based on his self-assessment as a scholar with limited academic capacity. Consequently, while Ben’s academic identity remained relatively unchanged, he reevaluated and adjusted his identity to align with the reality of being a realistic scholar in terms of publishing. In contrast, Helen’s story presented a contrast, as she would be inclined to temporarily relinquish academic pursuits if the disparity between her idealized aspirations and actual circumstances persisted. Her narrative further indicated that the academic identities of doctoral students could be flexibly negotiated in response to the daunting and unstable academic job market.

The two publishing stories suggested that the negotiation of academic identity in scholarly publishing exhibits a certain degree of flexibility, depending on the alignment or misalignment between the imagined community and the reality experienced by doctoral candidates. It is acknowledged that misalignment between imagination and reality very often happens in the unpredictable academic job market, which contributes to our understanding of the dynamic nature of identity construction through the analysis of individual differences. The two contrasting cases (from Ben and Helen) demonstrated that the construction of academic identity concerning publishing remains flexible throughout time and space, for it might be temporarily changed following different life stages and individual situations. This contradicts previous findings (Teng and Bui 2020; Trentman 2013), showing that whether international students’ imagination matches the realities or not can have a binary impact (positive or negative) on their identity and investment in their host communities. However, the adaptability observed in the construction of academic identity in these cases supported the argument by Ylijoki and Ursin (2013), indicating that the development of academic identity seems to be individualistic and dynamic, shaped by personal choices that best suit individuals at specific stages of life. In certain circumstances, such as in the academic job market, the academic identities of doctoral candidates are thus not rigidly defined by clear boundaries but rather constantly reshaped and renegotiated, when the misalignment between imagination and reality impacts their plans for scholarly publishing.