Doctoral writing for publication

'Publish or perish' has become the endemic struggle for survival within global academia, including New Zealand, affecting established academics, as well as new entrants, such as doctoral students. This article takes a neo-Bourdieusian approach, which, on the one hand, explains how writing visibility and measurability dominates the writing experience of seven international Chinese PhD students at a research-intensive university in New Zealand; on the other hand, it elicits the means to transform this domination. For this purpose, the article develops two counter ideas: the neoliberal publication habitus and the humanising publication habitus to capture the internal negotiation of two competing forces. One is neoliberalism of knowledge production as a commodity for sale. The other is the virtue of scholarly altruism of knowledge sharing for knowledge's own sake and public good. I argue that doctoral writing for publication is in both senses. The embodiment of the humanising publication habitus shows the potential to transform neoliberal domination of international Chinese doctoral students.