Inquiring into the Exemplary Spanish Theses of Mathematics Education: analysis of their scientific impact

Abstract

Abstract Establishing criteria that determine the quality of any scientific publication is a fact agreed on by the entire scientific community in its different fields of knowledge. In the case of doctoral theses, these criteria may vary between universities, doctoral schools, or evaluation committees. This paper presents an evaluation criteria proposal for doctoral theses in the field of Mathematics Education. A total of 199 theses indexed in the TESEO database are analyzed, throughout the 2015-2020 period. Likewise, after applying these criteria, those theses that have been denominated as “exemplary” are identified in this evaluative proposal. The main results include the consolidation of two university research centers in the field of Mathematics Education. However, results show the scarce dissemination that is made of the investigations carried out from the doctoral works (102 out of 199 doctoral theses have not had any associated publication) apparently having, as the main objective, the achievement of the Doctor’s degree instead of the search for development and scientific advancement.