A review on national postgraduate theses on museology in Turkey

Abstract

This study aimed to reveal the bibliometric characteristics of the postgraduate theses written on museology in Turkey. The theses examined within this framework were scanned from the database of the Council of Higher Education National Thesis Center (YÖKTEZ) with the keywords “museum” and “museology”. As a result of the search, 645 thesis records were reached between the years 1989-2022. In this direction, a total of 645 postgraduate theses, of which 586 are master’s theses, 51 are doctoral theses, and 8 are doctor of arts, have been examined. In this review, various parameters such as “number of postgraduate theses by year, type of postgraduate theses, universities where postgraduate theses are published, institutes where postgraduate theses are prepared, departments of postgraduate theses, subjects of postgraduate theses, publication language, advisor title and page ranges of postgraduate theses, and most frequently used keywords in postgraduate theses” were taken as a basis. In addition, the results of the scans made between 20.09.2022/01.10.2022 in the records accessed from the internet address of YÖK National Thesis Center https://tez.yok.gov.tr were taken into consideration. According to the findings, it was determined that the postgraduate theses on museology, focusing on 22 different subjects, were mostly carried out on the subjects of “architecture” and “archaeology”. In this context, it is thought that the results of this research will be a guide for future research in determining which areas of focus or gaps exist in the field of museums and museology. In addition, it has been determined that the subjects of “museum and museology” are discussed in 35 different science fields, and among these disciplines, the Department of Archeology, the Department of Museology, and the Department of Art History have come to the fore.