Does thesis and dissertations generate scientific papers? Analysis based in 3 physical education graduate programs

RAMOS, P. S.; FURTADO, E. C.; CARVALHO, E. R. F.; CAMPOS, M. O.; SOUZA, D. V. B. C.; ALMEIDA, L.D. P.; ARAúJO, C. G. S. Does thesis and dissertations generate scientific papers? Analysis based in 3physical education graduate programs. Brazilian Journal of Biomotricity, v. 3, n. 4, p. 315-324, 2009.Objective: To evaluate, retrospectively, published papers originating from thesis and dissertations concludedin three graduate programs (GP) in Physical Education. Methods: Titles and name of authors from thesis anddissertations concluded in 1998 and 2002 of 3 GP were searched in order to identify the published papers.Following, the papers were divided according to: master or doctoral degree, conclusion year, primaryemphasis (biological or sociocultural), institution and, if, they were published in indexed journals or not -Medline-PubMed and/or SciELO – in the following five years. Results: A total of 94 graduates concluded in1998 and 2002 in the three GP selected, generating a total of 46 published papers, being only eight of themin indexed journals, all produced predominantly with biological emphasis. While, the number of concludingstudents almost double from 1998 to 2002 - 31 to 66 -, the number of published papers remained steady,producing a mean publication rate decrease from .70 to .38. The mean publication rate is larger for doctoratecourses (p = .005) and about twice larger for those with biological emphasis (p=.041). The graduatedprogram better evaluated by CAPES has a higher publication rate (p=.012), while the number of publishedpapers do not differ between the two other GPs (p=.11). Conclusion: Recent quantitative and qualitativeincrement of overall Brazilian scientific production, as papers published in journals, it seems not be occurringin Physical Education GP. The inclusion of a specific item in GP reports to CAPES regarding paperspublished in the years following conclusion of graduate studies will allow a reliable and valid follow-up of theGPs’ graduate publication rate.