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Uncovering patterns in the supervision of Spanish theses: a comprehensive analysis

Abstract:

In academia, thesis supervision is a fundamental task in the good progress of PhD candidates and of the thesis itself. This task can be performed by a unique researcher (acting as a unique supervisor) or shared with other researchers (acting both as co-supervisors). Whether this demanding task is performed alone or in collaboration depends (or may depend) on many factors, among them, on the degree of independence of the researcher, the research topic and current regulations. This implies that, at some point in time, the PhD candidate should leave the exclusive guidance of his/her own supervisor to assume the role of thesis supervisor, alone or with others. The main aim of this paper is thus to analyze thesis supervision roles in Spain in order to identify patterns of behavior. To achieve this, we used the data on all Spanish theses stored in the TESEO database from 1 January 1980 to 20 July 2018, designing and applying a methodology to carry out a diachronic study. The data were divided into five consecutive time periods in order to determine the patterns in their evolution over the years, and analyze various aspects such as the interaction between different roles, the migration from one role to another, the factors that could influence these behaviors, and the independence of researchers from the perspective of thesis supervision. We identified four different roles that can be established in thesis supervision: Supervisor, Co-supervisor with own supervisor, Co-supervisor with PhD student, and Co-supervisor with other. Additionally, we have discovered how thesis researchers' preference for one role or another has varied over the years, the most and least popular roles by period, and the main migrations between the roles studied, among others.