Análisis bibliométrico de tesis doctorales sobre Relaciones Públicas en España y Portugal (2006/2016)/Bibliometric analysis of doctoral theses on Public Relations in Spain and Portugal (2006/2016)

Resumen

La investigación doctoral es fundamental para el desarrollo y consolidación de las distintas teorías que van incorporándose a las distintas áreas de conocimiento. Además, se le atribuye un valor añadido en la construcción del cuerpo teórico de una disciplina. Desde este punto de vista, las tesis son un indicador del estado evolutivo del desarrollo teórico y, a su vez, constituyen el origen de futuras publicaciones académicas y científicas.

Al respecto, y en el ámbito de las relaciones públicas y la comunicación corporativa, la producción científica ha vivido un gran crecimiento en los últimos años. La defensa de tesis doctorales en el área y la ampliación de líneas de investigación también han proliferado. Sin embargo, todavía son muy escasos los estudios bibliométricos de tesis doctorales publicadas sobre las relaciones públicas y la comunicación, y no existe ninguno que aborde la producción conjunta y comparada entre España y Portugal, países muy cercanos desde un puesto de vista cultural.

Por ello, el presente trabajo quiere abordar la investigación doctoral en el área de las relaciones públicas y la comunicación corporativa realizada en las universidades españolas y portuguesas entre 2006 y 2016 a partir del análisis de las tesis publicadas en sus universidades. Los resultados muestran cómo, si bien la producción ha aumentado considerablemente en los últimos años, sigue siendo escasas y acarrean la problemática de la falta de definición  terminológica de la disciplina.

Palabras clave: bibliometría, relaciones públicas, comunicación corporativa, tesis doctorales.

Abstract

Doctoral research is fundamental for the development and consolidation of the different theories that are incorporated into an area of ​​knowledge. In addition, a fundamental added value is attributed in the construction of the theoretical body of a discipline. From this point of view, the theses are an indicator of the evolutionary state of theoretical development and, in turn, constitute the origin of future academic and scientific publications. In recent years, scientific production in the field of public relations and corporate communication has experienced great growth. The publication of doctoral theses also evidences this increase and in turn reflects the interest in this field of communication which, given its nature, is subject to constant change. The doctoral research and its results allow to detect trends in the research lines, as well as to appreciate the evolution in the approaches of the discipline. That is why it is interesting to know the topics, objects of study and authorship and directions of the theses, both to consolidate certain theories and to detect incipient trends. However, there are still very few bibliometric studies of published doctoral theses on public relations and communication, and there is none that addresses joint and comparative production between Spain and Portugal, countries that are very close from a cultural point of view.

Therefore, this work carries out a bibliometric analysis of doctoral research in the area of public relations and corporate communication carried out in Spanish and Portuguese universities between 2006 and 2016. For this purpose, TESEO has been used as a Spanish database and RENATES as the reference database in Portugal. The keywords used in the search equations have revolved around the different nomenclatures that define the discipline and its evolution ("public relations", "corporate communication", "strategic communication", "business communication" and "organizational communication"). The result of the search gave a total of 64 theses that made up the analysis sample, of which 84.4% (54 documents) come from TESEO and 15.6% (10 documents) have been obtained through RENATES.

The main results show how there has been a considerable increase in the production of doctoral theses in the last two years analyzed in Spain and Portugal. Likewise, it is noted that there is a majority use of the term "public relations" in the two countries against the term "organizational communication" in Portugal and "Corporate Communication" in Spain. On the other hand, there is also a greater representation of applied research compared to that, which deals with a theoretical development, and in an outstanding way, that which analyzes cases. This difference is smaller in Portugal, where a certain balance is observed between the different research categories (theoretical development, applied research and introspective).

Finally, the main limitation found is in restricting the search of keywords exclusively to the field "title" of the documents as well as those deficiencies that can be generated in the records of the databases themselves.

Keywords: bibliometrics, public relations, corporate communication, doctoral theses.