The prevalence of publication pedagogy in doctoral education has created a hybrid space in which doctoral work is done. The emphasis on knowledge production is increasingly making doctoral students the subject of research performance and productivity measures, creating a borderland which they must cross in order to achieve academic success. Navigation requires critical engagement with power in knowledge production and assumptions about the neutrality of practices in doctoral publishing. To aid in this crossing the paper demonstrates the use of bibliometric techniques for mapping the social and political landscape, using 1216 publications by research masters and doctoral students at the University of Tasmania from 2007 to 2015. A data feminist approach is followed to critically examine power made visible by borderland maps, discuss issues of equity in knowledge production and to engage with bibliometric data.