Mapping the Research Thread of PhDs in Design: A PhD Citation Analysis of the Portuguese Doctorates

The present study undertaken within the DesignOBS project is based on 172 PhD theses in Design submitted to the Portuguese National Design Schools between 2005 and 2019. It focuses in particular on the extraction and analysis of 522 PhD citations appended to design doctoral work. The analysis is used to observe school impact, explore the weight of previous design focused and non-design doctoral work to develop PhD research in design in the country. The results reveal few connections between doctorates and few overlaps in-between as well as outside design schools; thus, indicating poor continuity and reproducibility of domestic doctoral work, little tradition of PhD citation, and an important weight of non-design schools. A network-based visualization of the connections between PhDs in design within PhD thesis, by use of a citation analysis method, enabled to draw reflections on the status of domestic doctoral research in Portugal and provides an empirical approach to explore the reproducibility of this type of research which may be used in other countries.