This study explored doctoral candidates’ learning needs in academic writing. Participants were 117 medical students who learned academic English writing as an essential part of their doctoral program. A five-point Likert-scale was used to investigate four aspects of their needs: learning orientation, language needs, writing resources, and academic ethics. Findings suggested students were mostly oriented to publishing their research in international journals and exhibited relatively low intrinsic motivation in academic writing. Students reported a moderate level of language awareness and competence in academic writing, but showed a strong need for a good command of specialty-related vocabulary. Strong needs were also expressed for writing resources including language polishing service, academic writing tutorials as well as library navigation for academic resources. The quantitative findings indicated students’ good sense of academic ethics regarding plagiarism, fabrication and cheating. However, quantitative findings from semi-structured interview revealed a strong need for reinforcing academic ethics. All the aspects except for academic ethics were significantly correlated.
 

academic writing, needs analysis, medical doctoral candidates, academic ethics