Developing Doctoral Theses in Education: The Role of Systematic Reviews in the Spanish Context

The production and development of doctoral theses have grown exponentially with the advent of the Internet and the democratization of access to information and education. In the field of education, this production is no stranger to this trend, so it is interesting to analyze the implications, causes and scientific–academic contributions of this increase. To this end, a systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out using the PRISMA 2020 protocol, with the Dialnet database as the documentary source, based on a previous study that justified its use and the availability of documents. Thus, a set of pre-established criteria are defined to identify doctoral theses carried out in Spanish universities and related to the education area that have been published in the last 17 years, finding a total of (n = 120) publications whose analysis answered the researchers’ questions focused on identifying patterns and strategies in the publication and methodological design of this type of document and what is the role of systematic reviews of the literature in them. In this sense, this research process aimed to analyze this kind of production and facilitate the process of designing new theses and research projects in the field of education. In this sense, this research process aimed to analyze this sort of output and facilitate the process of designing new theses and research projects in the field of education. The results make it possible to identify the increased importance of SLR in the development of doctoral theses and reveal the predominant models related to this type of production. Additionally, other aspects, such as the most common universities or research fields, the quantity and nature of subsequent studies, etc., concerning doctoral theses that incorporate an SLR were determined. Thus, conducting an SLR represents a solid and structured approach to initiate and build up the research process of doctoral theses, being essential to address students’ potential training needs in these regards.