Research writing and communication

This chapter presents a systematic review of 94 empirical studies published over the past decade on doctoral and postdoctoral writing and communication. The analysis, structured around perceptions, pedagogies, and communicative practices, reveals a predominance of research addressing doctoral students’ challenges—especially those of multilinguals. Pedagogical studies highlight growing interest in and benefits of writing courses, retreats, and feedback for learning and identity development, although some remain small-scale and weakly theorised. Research on communicative practices focuses mainly on writing, overlooking oral, multimodal, and public genres, as well as institutional constraints and AI-related uses. Most studies are grounded in sociocultural approaches, although some still adopt deficit perspectives. The review identifies persistent gaps, including the underrepresentation of postdoctoral researchers, the dominance of the English-language research article genre, and limited engagement with non-academic contexts. It calls for more inclusive and theoretically grounded pedagogies and policies that bridge disciplinary and epistemological boundaries.