Bibliometrical analysis of postgraduate theses on sustainable development in Turkey

Abstract

Sustainability has recently been among the frequently repeated concepts upon recognition especially of value of nature and natural resources. Substantial studies have been conducted on the subjects related with sustainability after 1980s. Increasing interest in sustainability concept has also enhanced point of view from every angle. The preliminary studies on the subject were mostly on comprehension of environmental sustainability. Over the time, sustainability has become privileged research domain in every angle from economy to health, from agriculture to management and so on. In Turkey, there have been various researches on sustainability and postgraduate level theses have been published. The objective of the present study is to analyze postgraduate theses on “sustainable development” in Turkey. Thus, it was aimed to determine which dimensions and which angles of sustainable development have been covered so far in Turkey. In this scope, postgraduate theses located in the database of the Higher Education Board National Thesis Center (YÖKTEZ) were screened through a literature search; then, collected data was classified through content analysis; and finally, bibliometric analysis was conducted. Totally 250 postgraduate theses on sustainable development published in the period of 1992-2021 were collected. The bibliometric analysis was conducted on collected theses with respect to their type, publishing year, language, distribution according to university and institute, titles of thesis advisor, number of pages, references, keywords, research method and data collection method. As a result of our analysis, it was determined that theses on sustainable development were oriented on environment, environmental issues, environmental sustainability, climate change, sustainable development education, renewable energy and sustainable economy subjects. Moreover, theses were predominantly master theses and issued by students registered with postgraduate programs of Social Science Institute. Although number of theses has varied over the time, it increased significantly recently. It was also determined that they were suffering major deficiencies with research method and0 data collection methods.