Evolution of Project Management as a Scientific Discipline

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the quantity and impact of worldwide research production in the field of “project management” over the past 38 years. We performed a bibliometric analysis using the Scopus database between 1980 and 2017 to develop an understanding of the evolution of research on “project management.” Using the knowledge of a domain expert in the field of “project management,” we first compiled a set of reliable keywords, which represented the field. Second, we developed a data extraction strategy for searching the phrase “project management” in the title or keyword or abstract of publications by limiting our sources to journals in English. We observed the evolution of this field by analyzing not only the quantity of publications but also their impact (citations) per year and compared their growth trend in four periods. The results of our analysis confirmed that not only the research themes or topics but also the active parties involved in project management research have experienced phonemic changes over time.