View that filters content based on current page
Recreating Drupal 6 Views in Drupal 8 should be quite straightforward. What got you confused? 

You need to create a list of all "Child" nodes (Publications) and add the Contextual filter for the Entity reference field that references the "parent". Configure that filter to use the "Provide default value", "Content ID from URL". Adjust all the other options in the filter to your specific needs. 

When you add the Block to a region in your theme you also have to set the option again (in the Block settings) for the Contextual filter to use the Content ID from URL.