One fundamental issue for universities concerns the success (or not) of graduate students and the programmes within which graduate work is done. In an era of budgetary constraints, knowledge of what works well for promoting graduate student success is critical. The aim of the INSOC (International Network on Social Capital and Performance) research group is to develop comparative analyses of PhD students’ academic performance across the INSOC member universities. Academic performance is defined on the basis of publications and conference presentations. This special issue is devoted to the studies done to predict PhD students’ academic performance carried out by the INSOC research group.