At the 33rd Conference of the Polish Association for Applied Linguistics (April 10–11, 2026), Krystyna Warchał presented the findings of her study on the factors shaping the early publication strategies of PhD candidates at the Doctoral School of a large Polish university: Języki publikacji osób studiujących w szkole doktorskiej: Czynniki kształtujące strategie upowszechniania wyników badań na wczesnym etapie kariery akademickiej. Using the lens of legitimate peripheral participation and drawing on previous research on early-career scholars, the study addressed the following questions: What are the research dissemination practices of Polish Doctoral School students? What motivates their choices of the publication language and venue? Who supports them in making these decisions?

The study employed three methods of data collection: an analysis of university publication reports from 2020–2024, a survey, and semi-structured interviews with doctoral students. The findings show that doctoral students’ publication practices closely reflect the norms prevailing in their respective disciplines. This suggests that they are highly attuned to disciplinary expectations and take them into account in their early publishing decisions. The results also highlight the crucial role of supervisors and team support in helping doctoral students engage with the practices of the research community and in shaping their evolving publication strategies.

Importantly, the study suggests that a sense of isolation from the disciplinary community may be the greatest obstacle to the development of novice researchers. Isolation limited participants’ engagement with disciplinary practices, constrained their potential, and created uncertainty about expectations, requirements, and desirable academic outcomes. In other words, it had a harmful effect on all forms of identification with their disciplinary communities, hindering academic and professional growth.