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Educational resources and simple solutions for your research journey

Research Project Management: 5 Project Management Tips for Researchers

Effective planning and a management of resources are essential prerequisites required for proper research project management and the successful completion of research projects. However, one of the biggest challenges researchers face while accomplishing these tasks is that these projects usually have varying lengths and unpredictable outcomes, so the research management techniques need to be redeveloped with every new project.

As a scientist, one is more inclined toward understanding the science and, hence, the leadership and organizational skills required for research project management need to be consciously acquired along the way. Furthermore, the ‘scientist mindset’ of adapting to unpredictability by making rapid changes in existing protocols can clash heavily with the ‘manager mindset’ of ensuring these changes align with the availability of resources. 1  Therefore, it’s understandable that many young researchers struggle with how to manage research projects, especially during the initial stages of their academic journey, often finding it difficult to incorporate such research management techniques.

If you are among those wondering how to manage your research projects effectively, this article will provide you with some useful tips to help you improve your research project management skills. But before having a closer look at these, let us have a short recap of the different aspects that are often associated with the successful management of any project.

Every new project ideally begins with preparation of a roadmap or a personal guide, which can be modified as required for the entire duration of the project. Here are some key steps that can help in better preparation of a roadmap for research project management. 2

Initiation and planning- The first step for research project management is typically defined as the initiation stage. In this stage, the feasibility of the project is assessed with respect to the different experiments to be performed and the availability of resources required for their completion. If any part of the project needs collaborative effort to be completed, an important research management technique would be to identify the relevant people required at this stage itself. The initiation stage is followed by the planning stage, which includes the preparation of necessary protocols, allocation of resources, and informing personnel involved about their specific roles and responsibilities.

Risk management- After the initiation and planning stage is complete, the next step in research project management is to identify potential roadblocks that may occur during the implementation of the roadmap and devise strategies to resolve them. This may include revisiting insufficiently standardized protocols and reconsidering the use of techniques depending on the limited availability of resources. Risk identification and mitigation planning saves time and ensures a smooth workflow and is, therefore, an essential component for effective research project management.

In spite of a perfectly planned project roadmap on paper, many researchers struggle to execute these research management techniques. This can be frustrating and demotivating for researchers, but there are some simple solutions that can be implemented to overcome these struggles and ensure successful research project management.

• Identify your core issue

If you’re struggling with implementing the roadmap in the desired manner, the first step or research management technique is to identify the core issue. For some researchers, the problems could range from a technical error that needs troubleshooting or a miscalculation while acknowledging the risks involved while preparing the roadmap. Identifying the core issue that is blocking the execution and finding solutions for it is an important aspect of improving your research project management skills.

• Simplify your timelines

To ensure a smooth workflow under any circumstances, a great research management technique would be to break down your envisioned timeline (especially when they involve new protocols) into smaller timelines with more attainable goals. This will allow you to revisit the ‘original’ roadmap on a more regular basis and ensure the better management of the funds and resources available.

• Refrain from perfectionism

Research is ‘work in progress’ and the outcome of any experiment may not always be the one that you envisioned in the roadmap. So how to manage such research projects? It is helpful to lower any expectations regarding a ‘perfect’ outcome; accepting ‘negative’ results and the learnings that come along with it is a critical research management technique. When one does not chase perfectionism, it becomes easier to accept and adapt to unpredictability, eventually leading to effective research project management and the successful completion of the project. 3

• Engage in regular communication with stakeholders

An important, yet underrated component of effective research project management is engaging in regular communication with all the relevant stakeholders. Whether it is the personnel involved directly in your project such as your advisor, peers, technicians or indirect stakeholders such as the funding agencies, it is important to keep the communication lines open at all times. Short meetings scheduled at defined intervals for the entire duration of the project is a good research management technique to discuss progress, pace, and troubleshooting strategies would help bring everyone on the same page regarding the outcome of the project.

• Maintain a record sheet for effective allocation of funds

If your project is funded by organizations that have stringent protocols regarding budget consumption, you need to pay extra attention to how you are using the funds. Using digital tools to maintain a record sheet as part of your research project management reduces your work load and makes it easier and convenient to share your spends with stakeholders whenever the need arises.

Lastly, before embarking upon any project, it is always important to get an external perspective on different aspects that are involved in the project. Discussing the roadmap with someone who is not directly involved in your project provides an objective overview and helps in better identification of loopholes, making it an important aspect of effective research project management.

We hope these research project management tips were useful and relevant in answering how to manage a research project, and will help you strengthen your research management techniques.

• Project Management for Scientists, Part 1: An Overview. https://www.science.org/content/article/project-management-scientists-part-1-overview.
• Project Management Tips for Researchers. ASM.org https://asm.org/Articles/2019/January/Project-Management-Tips-for-Researchers.
• 10 Project Management Tips for Non-Project Managers. Northeastern University Graduate Programs https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/project-management-tips/ (2019).

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Managing Research Projects

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Project management is a valuable skill that helps you think about where you want your research project to go, what you need to get there, and how to minimise risks during the process. Unfortunately, most early career researchers do not get much training in research project management and are left to fend for themselves. This chapter starts with useful tips about managing time by giving examples of essential project planning tools like task lists, milestones, charts, and timelines. Next, it discusses managing the research project process including administration, data management, and risk assessment. In addition, it discusses how best to manage people in your project team, from your supervisors to external stakeholders, and shares tips on preparing and chairing meetings and setting up a communication plan. Finally, this chapter emphasises the need to manage your own mental health while making the most of your research project.

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Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Burroughs Wellcome Fund. (2006). Making the right moves: A practical guide to scientific management for postdocs and new faculty . https://www.hhmi.org/science-education/programs/resources/making-right-moves

Streiner, D. L. (2011). In S. Sidani (Ed.), When research goes off the rails: Why it happens and what you can do about it . Guilford Press. https://www.guilford.com/books/When-Research-Goes-Off-the-Rails/Streiner-Sidani/9781606234105

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I would like to thank Lisa Klinkenberg, Rebecca Woodhouse, Papiya Mazumdar, and Emily Peckham for providing valuable input for this chapter.

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van Dongen, A. (2022). Managing Research Projects. In: Kwasnicka, D., Lai, A.Y. (eds) Survival Guide for Early Career Researchers. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10754-2_7

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3 The Evolution of Project Management Research: The Evidence from the Journals

Rodney Turner is Professor of Project Management at the SKEMA Business School, Lille, France. He is Visiting Professor at Henley Business School, the Kemmy Business School, Limerick, and the University of Technology Sydney. Rodney is the author or editor of sixteen books, and is editor of The International Journal of Project Management. He is Vice President, Honorary Fellow, and former chairman of the UK's Association for Project Management.

Jeffrey K. Pinto holds the Andrew Morrow and Elizabeth Lee Black Chair in the Management of Technology at Penn State University. He is the author or editor of 23 books and over 120 scientific papers. Dr. Pinto is a two-time recipient of the Distinguished Contribution Award from the Project Management Institute (1997, 2001) for outstanding service to the project management profession. He received PMI's Research Achievement Award in 2009.

Christophe Bredillet is Dean and Provost at SKEMA Business School, Lille, France. He is Professor of Strategy, Programme, and Project Management and Director of Postgraduate Studies. He is editor of the Project Management Journal. His interests and research activities cover principles and theories of project management and business dynamics.

• Published: 02 May 2011
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This article seeks to address the question of the current state of project management research through an analysis of the domain's advance over time, as evidenced in the pages of its principal academic research outlets. While there are many ways in which theoreticians and researchers have sought to examine the evolving nature of the project management research field, the attempt here involves a more forensic approach, based on a critical review of some of the published literature. Over the past twenty years there has been a substantial improvement in the quality and rigor of project management research, as evidenced by the standard of papers being published in three leading academic research journals that focus on project management research. This article represents the collective thoughts and reflections of the three journals' editors at the time of writing on the evolution of the project management research field.

Introduction

This chapter seeks to address the question of the current state of project management research through an analysis of the domain's advance over time, as evidenced in the pages of its principal academic research outlets. While there are many ways in which theoreticians and researchers have sought to examine the evolving nature of the project management research field, our attempt here involves a more forensic approach, based on a critical review of some of the published literature. Over the past twenty years there has been a substantial improvement in the quality and rigor of project management research, as evidenced by the standard of papers being published in three leading academic research journals that focus on project management research:

The International Journal of Project Management , published by Elsevier (IJPM)

The Project Management Journal , published by Wiley (PMJ)

The IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management (IEEE-TEM), published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Technology Management Council (formerly IEEE Engineering Management Society)

This chapter represents the collective thoughts and reflections of the three journals' editors at the time of writing on the evolution of the project management research field.

In the 1970s, most “research” writing in project management was dominated by practitioners, who set the research agenda and research style (Turner et al. 2010 ). In the 1980s it became heavily influenced also by the professional associations, the Project Management Institute (PMI®), the International Project Management Association (IPMA), the Association for Project Management (APM), and the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM). During this phase, there was a concerted push on the part of these associations to establish the domains' knowledge base through its “body of knowledge,” of which several variants appeared (Project Management Institute 1987 , 2008 ; International Project Management Association 2006 ; Association for Project Management 2006 ; Australian Institute of Project Management 2004 ). Ultimately, as in the 1970s, much of the research in Project Management at this time could be characterized as very practitioner oriented. This tended to mean:

it was narrow in scope, in the worst cases just focusing on improving optimization tools such as critical path analysis;

it lacked rigor because it typically was not based on sound research methodologies;

it often employed single case studies, including “war stories,” which, while offering practical guidance to practitioners, were often hard to generalize for the wider purpose of developing theory;

it often did not draw from nor make reference to the literature, often lacking citations.

As a result, project management came to be seen in many academic institutions as something of a “quasi-discipline,” with little agreement as to roots or heritage (“Is it decision sciences? Organization Theory? Operations Research?”). Fundamentally, project management research was an outcropping of other fields and many of its early researchers made their academic “homes” in allied but separate disciplines, including construction, engineering, and management science.

However, since the early 1990s there has been a substantial improvement in the quality and rigor of research in project management, as can be seen in the three research journals. Specifically:

the papers cover a wider range of topics, showing that project management is a richer, more diverse field, and people are recognizing that a much wider range of methods are available for the successful delivery of projects;

the research on which the papers are based uses more rigorous methodologies, with the result that the research is sounder and can contribute to theory development;

there are an increasing number of citations to recent journal articles, with the result that the research is soundly based on recent theory development;

there are citations to a much wider range of journals outside the field, showing that project management is drawing on and contributing to a wider range of other domains, making the research richer, and ensuring it is backed by theory development elsewhere; and

papers are being cited by articles from a wider range of journals, showing that project management research is making a wider contribution outside the field.

The purpose of our analysis here is to present evidence to support the above contentions, through an evaluation of project management research as it has been published in the three leading academic project management journals.

Our analysis examined three distinct aspects of this published work:

Topics—we refer to “topics” as the specific project management issues or subjects addressed in the paper itself. Analyzing topic content allowed us to make some observations about the range of issues these papers addressed. In identifying the range of topics that we classified for this chapter, we relied on the previous work of Morris ( 2001 ) and Kwak and Anbari ( 2009 ) who developed such classification schemes.

Methodologies employed—we also wanted to understand the types of analytic techniques used within the publications. Methodologies ranged from the highly conceptual and qualitative to the more quantitative and statistically rigorous techniques. There were a total of twenty-one possible methodologies that we identified as being used in project management research.

Citation patterns—we examined the citations that these papers referred to; that is, we wanted to ascertain the types of journals or other outlets that authors used as references for their published work. We were interested in determining the degree to which these papers made reference to other project management literatures, business, engineering, psychology, or other sources. In short, what were the sources of inspiration for these papers? A total of thirty-six possible outlets can be identified for IJPM for example as citation sources for project management publications (Table 3.1 ), ranging from academic journals, to conference proceedings, and most recently to web sources. Further, it is interesting to note the trends for these citations. As you will see from the tables, much of the early project management work had, as its key sources, reference to a relatively limited set of disciplinary journals. Over the past twenty years, this set has dramatically broadened. The list of key sources for project management publication citations now includes the fields shown in Table 3.2 .

In the next sections we will examine each of the three journals' publication patterns in detail, using the above three criteria.

International Journal of Project Management (IJPM)

IJPM was founded in 1983 by the UK's Association for Project Management on behalf of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). In March 2009, IJPM was admitted to the Social Science Citation Index (Thomson World of Science), reinforcing the substantial improvement in the quality and rigor of project management research.

To demonstrate the improvement in the quality and rigor of articles published in IJPM, we compared articles published at ten-year intervals, 1987, 1997, and 2007. We chose those years, rather than a year later, because there will not yet, at the time of writing, be many citations of articles published in 2008. In 1987 IJPM was publishing just four issues per year. The number of issues had grown to six in 1997 and the current eight in 2007. Also the number of papers per issue has grown. In 1987 and 1997 it was about eight papers per issue, giving thirty-one and forty-five papers in each of those two years. By 2007 it was almost eleven papers per issue, eighty-five in total. The increasing number of papers is indicative of the growing interest in the subject.

Topics covered

Table 3.3 shows the topics covered by papers published in the journal in the three years 1987, 1997, and 2007. The classifications used in the table are the ones that the authors used to classify their papers when submitting papers to the journal.

Total number of topics

In 1987, papers covered an average of about one and a half topics each, whereas in 1997 and 2007 they covered an average of about two topics each. In 2007 many papers covered three topics, for instance describing the application of a technique in a given industry (usually construction) in a particularly country (usually a recently developed country in the Far East). However, the increasing number of papers is largely responsible for the larger number of topics, with many topics being mentioned just once in each of the three years. But the increasing number of papers published is in itself an indication of the growing interest in project management.

Range of topics

In 1987, there was at least one paper about a topic from each of the topic areas. So the full breadth of field areas was covered. The most popular setting was within the engineering and construction industry, a quarter of papers being specifically about that industry. We will see this repeated in the number of citations of papers from construction and construction management journals. The next most popular topics were computer support, managing time, execution and control, post-commissioning operation and maintenance, and projects in newly developed countries with three mentions each (10 percent of papers).

In 1997 the most popular topic was still the engineering and construction industry, with now almost a third of papers being about the topic. The second most popular topic was now risk management, which had received only one mention in 1987, with one fifth of papers being about that topic. There was an increase in interest in computer support (13 percent), managing time (11 percent), while interest in execution and control (9 percent) and newly developed countries (7 percent) remained about the same. But in 1997 (and in 2007) there were no papers about post-commissioning operation and maintenance. Other topics being mentioned by around 10 percent of papers in 1997 were managing resources, and research and development projects. There were also three papers about program management, though two of these were more about portfolio management.

In 2007 the most popular topic was still projects in the engineering and construction industry, with now over a third of papers being about that topic. However, during the year there was a special issue on that topic, so the growth in papers in that area since 1997 can be explained by that. The second most popular topic was still risk management (13 percent) followed closely by partnering and alliancing (12 percent). However, many of the papers in the special issue were about partnering and alliancing, but even without that issue, partnering and alliancing would still have been the third most popular topic. No other topic now received a mention by more than 10 percent of papers, but several were mentioned by more than 5 percent of papers. There is no loss of interest in a topic since 1997, but the interesting appearance of two new topics is human resource management and the services industry.

Research methodologies used

Table 3.4 lists the research methodologies used by papers in IJPM in the three years taken for this analysis.

Papers with a methodology section

In 1987 there was just one paper having a section describing the research methodology employed. In 1997 there were thirteen, about a quarter; in 2007 about three quarters of papers had a methodology section (sixty-one). This is an indication of a growing concern for rigor.

Total number of methods used

The papers in 1987 used just one method each. In 1997 and 2007 about 20 percent of papers were using mixed methods. It was quite common to combine a literature search with another method, perhaps a survey, case study, or the development of a new technique. But other techniques would also be combined, such as the development of a new technique and a case study to illustrate it, or a survey with semi-structured interviews.

Range of methods used

In 1987 there was a very narrow range of methods used, and they illustrate the then practitioner focus of the journal. The methods used in 1987 were predominantly citing examples of existing techniques or introducing new ideas, comparison of techniques, conceptual papers, literature reviews, and case studies. Many of these were aimed at illustrating the application of project management for practitioners. The greatest number of papers (29 percent) were conceptual papers. These are papers that give a perspective on an element of theory. In 1997 and 2007, no papers gave an illustration of an existing technique, showing a move away from a practitioner focus. In 1997, there were fifteen conceptual papers (33 percent). However these were often outlining concepts for academic researchers. In 2007, the percentage of conceptual papers fell to 12 percent.

In 1997 and 2007, it was clear that the methods used in the papers had broadened out significantly, as a range of new methods approaches were employed. After conceptual papers, survey is the next most popular technique, 24 percent of papers. By 2007, this was the most popular technique overall, appearing in 26 percent of papers. The percentage for this technique was not much changed from 1997, but conceptual papers were now not so common. Overall, it is clear that the two years (1997 and 2007) showed evidence that: (1) there has been a shift away from practitioner-based techniques and the adoption of more rigorous methods, and (2) a much wider range of research and analytical techniques is being used.

Number of citations by papers published in the journal

Table 3.1 shows the number of citations by papers published in IJPM in each of the three years 1987, 1997, and 2007. These citation patterns are intended to show the source of referencing done by authors published in IJPM to identify the types of journals from which they are drawing their citations.

In 1987, more than half the papers (58 percent) have no citations at all. This was not a once-off. There were a similar number without citations in 1988. In 1997, four papers still had no citations. Papers from 1987 which have citations typically have around ten, though the record was over fifty. Papers from 1997 typically have around 20 citations, and from 2007 around 40 (though the record was over 100). The average number of citations of journal articles from 1987 was 1.5. If we ignore the papers without citations, the average rises to 3.5. By 1997 that had doubled to 7.0; articles are making twice as many citations. By 2007, the average number of citations of journal articles had almost trebled again, to almost nineteen. That is over twelve times more than the average number of citations in 1987.

Over the years, there has been very little change in the number of citations of conference papers, running at just under 1.5 throughout the twenty years. The change is that people are now citing the new research conferences, and whereas citations of the PMI practitioner conferences have remained fairly stable, citations of IPMA's practitioner conference have almost disappeared. However, in 2007 a very large number of the citations of the PMI practitioner conferences were from just two papers and one was self-citations.

The new arrival is the citation of web pages. The average for 2007 was 0.8 citations of a web page per paper. While most papers still cite none, some make web pages the main source of literature.

Sources of papers being cited by papers in IJPM

Table 3.1 shows where the papers being cited by papers in IJPM were themselves published. Over the twenty years, self-citations in IJPM have increased almost twentyfold, compared to the twelvefold overall increase of citations by papers in the journal. Citations of papers in PMJ have increased about twelvefold, in line with the overall increase. Over the years, papers in the journal have been citing papers from an increasing number of fields.

The most significant number of citations is of construction journals, with an average of almost 3.5 citations per paper in 2007. There is also a strong interest in engineering and engineering management, with an average of about 0.8 citations per paper in 2007. Over the years there is a growing interest in management topics. By 2007, general management, business, and strategy receive an average of about 2.7 citations per paper, decisions sciences about 1.3, and Human Resources and Organizational Behavior about 2.1.

Cited articles about ICT are primarily about computers' role in the construction design and execution processes. In 1997 there was only one article cited about managing ICT projects, and none in 2007. Many of the articles are generic and apply to all industries. But if people write about a specific industry it is primarily about construction. There has been increasing interest in research, looking at research projects, research in construction, and the research process itself.

The absence of papers on procurement in 1987 and 1997 is surprising. There was an article on contract management in the very first issue of IJPM. There has recently been a growing interest in forms of contract, particularly BOT and PPP/PFI. Articles on contract management appear in journals on Construction Management, Procurement, Law, or Project Management. Governance and the Environment are popular issues at the moment.

Project Management Journal (PMJ)

The Project Management Journal (PMJ) was founded in 1970 by the Project Management Institute. Until 2007 it was an in-house journal distributed only to members of PMI. However in 2007 management of the journal transferred to Wiley.

This review has only had access to copies from 1997 and 2007, so we review developments over that ten-year period. (See, however, Morris 2001 for a review of all papers and topics covered between 1990 and 2000.) Also PMJ does not appear in the leading citation indexes, and so it is not possible to determine how many times papers in PMJ have been cited. PMI has wanted to maintain the journal at its original size. So it is still only running to four issues a year, with approximately six papers per issue. In 1997 there were twenty-three papers and in 2007 thirty-one.

Table 3.5 shows the topics covered by papers in PMJ in 1997 and 2007. In 1997, the average number of topics per paper is just under two, whereas in 2007 it is about two and a quarter. Thus there was a slight increase in the number of topics per paper in those years, whereas IJPM was static at two. But the differences may not be very significant. Thus PMJ had roughly the same number of topics per paper as IJPM, but because there are very much fewer papers the total number of topics covered is less.

With many of the topics being mentioned only once per year in each journal, it is difficult to draw comparisons between the two journals. But there are some areas of interest. Whereas in IJPM every topic area was covered in all years, in PMJ in 1997 there were no papers on the project life cycle, or on financial issues. There were papers on life cycle in 2007, but still none on financial issues. As with IJPM, execution and control was one of the most popular topics in PMJ in 2007 (not having been mentioned in 1997). In 1997, the most popular topic in PMJ was projects in the construction industry, with slightly over a third of papers being about that topic, similar to IJPM. However, by 2007 there was only one paper on that topic. Perhaps this reflects a change of focus of PMI itself towards other industries. In 1997 and 2007 there were three papers on research and development projects (13 percent). This was also the only other type of project receiving more than one mention in IJPM. The second most popular type of project in PMJ in 2007 was IT projects with two mentions (6 percent). Unlike IJPM, in PMJ there was quite a change in the topics receiving the most mentions between 1997 and 2007. In 1997 the popular topics (receiving three or more mentions) were: managing quality, managing time, and decision-making. Managing time was popular in IJPM but the other two were not. In 2007 the popular topics in PMJ were: success and strategy, research into project management, project organization, execution and control, organizational capability, teams, leadership, culture, decision-making, and old world countries; almost a complete change on focus. Only decision-making is common to the two years. Two differences from IJPM are interesting. First, in PMJ there is little interest in risk (though this is not the case in the Morris ( 2001 ) survey of PMJ). Secondly, whereas in PMJ there were two papers on the topic of systems thinking, there were none in IJPM.

Table 3.6 shows the research methodologies used by PMJ. In 1997 about half the papers had a methodology section, about twice the ratio for IJPM for the same year. In 2007 about three quarters of papers had a methods section, almost the same as IJPM.

In 1997 the average number of methods per paper was about 1.1, meaning that about 10 percent of papers were using mixed methods. But by 2007 the average number was about 1.5, meaning about half the papers were using mixed methods. This compares to 1.2 in IJPM in both years.

Because of the smaller number of papers published in PMJ, even though there are more methods on average per paper in 2007, there is a much smaller range of actual methods used when compared to IJPM. In PMJ in 1997, the most popular method is already surveys (35 percent), though conceptual papers is a close second (26 percent). However, there are still several papers developing a new technique (17 percent). By 2007 the most popular method was literature search (39 percent). Survey was a close second (32 percent). In 2007 a quarter of papers used a case-study method and around 16 percent were conceptual papers. These are similar figures to IJPM.

Number and sources of citations by papers published in PMJ

Table 3.7 shows the number of citations by papers published in PMJ in 1997 and 2007. The table shows citations of articles in other journals and of conference papers. (We did not collect the data for web pages.) There are several points of interest.

There are five papers with no citations: four from 1997 and one from 2007. These papers did in fact cite books, but no journal articles. There is very little interest in construction and construction management, but there is a similar interest in engineering and engineering management to IJPM. There is a much stronger interest in research and research management than is the case for IJPM. There is a similar interest in general management, strategy, and business, a slightly stronger interest in decision sciences, but a slightly weaker interest in Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior. Otherwise the spread of citations is very similar to IJPM. There are one or two fields that receive a small number of citations in IJPM but none in PMJ, but this may merely reflect the smaller number of articles published.

In 1997 the citation of conference papers is much smaller than in IJPM, but the conferences cited are only the PMI practitioner conference and conferences outside the field of project management. In 2007, papers in PMI cite about twice as many conference papers as IJPM, with the PMI Research Conference, the PMI practitioner conferences, and IRNOP the most popular.

IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management (IEEE-TEM)

IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management (IEEE-TEM) is a publication of the IEEE Technology Management Council (formerly IEEE Engineering Management Society) and is a research-based, refereed journal in engineering management that has been published quarterly since 1954. Its worldwide subscription base is approximately 10,000. Unlike the International Journal of Project Management and the Project Management Journal , IEEE-TEM is not exclusively focused on the publication of project management research, but pursues a broader purpose, including the publication of leading-edge research articles and technical notes in engineering, technology, and innovation management. It is thus composed of seven departments, including: People and Organizations, Information Technology, R&D and Engineering Projects, e-Business, Models and Methodologies, Technology and Innovation Management, and Manufacturing Systems. As a result, the number of actual “project management” articles published in each issue of IEEE-TEM varies, depending upon submissions relative to those manuscripts submitted to other departments. IEEE-TEM is listed in the Social Sciences Citation Index.

Following the methodology applied to the analysis of IJPM's citation patterns, we developed a similar table for project management articles published in IEEE-TEM for each of the years 1988, 1997, and 2007. We selected 1988 as it was the earliest year for which IEEE-TEM was listed in full online text format. Of the twenty-eight refereed articles published in 1988, six (21 percent) were project oriented. In 1997, a total of five (14 percent) of the thirty-six articles published in IEEE-TEM focused on project issues. Finally, in 2007, a total of fifty-five articles were published, of which six (11 percent) were project management papers. Using the “citations by articles” classification scheme from Table 3.9 , several interesting patterns emerged.

Table 3.8 shows the topics covered in the published articles from the journal for the dates 1988, 1997, and 2007. In 1988 and 1997, the average number of topics per paper is nearly 2.5, increasing in 2007 to 4.3. Thus there was an increase in the number of topics per paper in those years, similar to PMJ and IJPM counts for the earlier years but showing a strong increase in the most recent data.

Because of the smaller number of actual articles, it is important not to “over-read” the data. Nevertheless, there are some interesting changes in topic patterns from the early years of the analysis, when the most popular topics were those of managing time/schedule, managing resources, and project execution and control. These results are consonant with the earlier observations that IEEE-TEM tended to promote more “technical” papers with a background in decision sciences and operations research, aimed at optimization. Most recently, however, issues such as individual competence, managing teams, and organizational behavior point to a broadening of the traditional themes, similar to patterns observed in the other journals.

Perhaps the most intriguing finding for research methods used (see Table 3.9 ) was the movement toward large-scale field survey methods, coupled with more sophisticated data analysis employing ANOVA and multiple regression methods. A technique that was essentially unused in IEEE-TEM in its early days became the most popular research method in project management articles published in 2007. Modeling remains a popular research technique and, given the readership and philosophy of the journal, is likely to continue apace. Nevertheless, the intriguing results here suggest that greater emphasis and acceptance of social science research methods is an emerging theme.

Number and sources of citations by papers published in the journal

Using the “citations by articles” classification scheme from Table 3.10 , several interesting patterns emerged.

The total number of papers published in IEEE-TEM has continued to increase at a strong rate, from twenty-eight total papers published in 1988 to fifty-five published in 2007. This trend (a near doubling of the number of published papers in the past twenty years) reflects a significant increase in the popularity of the journal and the breadth of papers it receives as submissions. Papers directly related to project management (that is, those that are assigned to the department editor for R&D and Engineering Projects) continue to remain relatively steady at approximately 14 percent of papers published in each issue. Thus, it is common for one or two papers each issue to deal with project management themes.

The average number of citations per project management article has steadily increased over the past twenty years. In 1988, the average paper had 18.5 citations, though the high was 41. In 1997, the average paper had nearly 37 citations (36.6) with a high of 76. Finally, in 2007, the average paper had over 63 citations, with a high of 88.

Trends in citations showed some interesting patterns. In 1987, the preponderance of cited work came from the decision science journals. In fact, half of the total average citations for this year were either decision science or research journals. Project management journals, including IJPM, PMJ, and IEEE, received a steadily increasing number of average citations across the twenty-year timeframe, reinforcing an earlier point that SSCI reappraisal of the standing of IJPM appears to have prompted higher citation patterns in other journals. Other classes of journals that were increasingly cited were those for “General Management,” “HRM, OB, Education and Learning, Health,” “Marketing,” and “Strategy.” In all these cases, the average citations per article showed dramatic increases over time—General Management increased from an average of less than one citation per article in 1988 to 5.2 average citations in 1997 and 7.17 citations in 2007. The HRM class increased from zero average citations in 1988 to 6.83 in 2007. Marketing and Strategy showed equally significant increases.

Conference paper citations showed a relatively steady increase from 1988 to 2007, though few were from Project Management-focused conferences (e.g. PMI or IPMA conferences).

The analysis of research methods (Table 3.9 ) offers some preliminary information on the alternative methods for conducting research and analyzing results. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the use of survey methods for large-sample research, coupled with regression and ANOVA statistical techniques. Though the actual sample size is limited, the trends point to a stronger inclination to adopt field research, literature reviews, and modeling techniques as primary research methods.

Some Emergent Themes from the Review of the Three Journals

In analyzing, from an editor's perspective, the current state of project management literature, some interesting trends appear to be operating.

The research and literature base is growing

An analysis of the citation patterns demonstrates the strong increase in the numbers of cited works from other journals and disciplinary sources. In 1988, the average number of IEEE citations per article for example was 18.5. That figured doubled by 1997 and nearly doubled again by 2007, to an average of 63.17 citations per article. This increase in citation activity suggests the emergence of a large body of work from which to draw these citations. The fact that the average article could, in 2007, cite over 63 other sources demonstrates the growth of the literature base for project management research. Kwak and Anbari's ( 2009 ) recent analysis of publishing patterns of 8 “allied disciplines” across 18 top management journals over the past 50 years found a total of nearly 1,000 articles published on project management with nearly 80 percent appearing in print since 1980.

The literature is becoming increasingly diverse

The data reflects a dramatic ramping-up of research work being conducted in the domain of project management. Early work in project-based subjects within IEEE-TEM, for example, was often centered on the themes of research policy or optimization techniques from operations research/management science. The changing citation patterns suggest a broadening of topics. This trend is mirrored in an analysis by Morris ( 2001 ) who undertook an analysis of research trends during the decade of the 1990s, examining the output of the Project Management Journal, Project Management Network (PMN), and the International Journal of Project Management .

Other work, best characterized by Söderlund ( 2004 a and 2004b ), has examined publication patterns of project-based work and noted an important cross-fertilization between work that appears in traditional project management journals and that which is being done within other management domains, noting, “traditional project management researchers become increasingly more interested in issues related to traditional management, organization and inter-firm cooperation. Another trend is that researchers in other disciplines show greater awareness of the importance of projects in understanding the functioning of markets and firms” ( 2004a : 656). Thus, one aspect of this issue of increasing diversity relates to the authors themselves and the work they conduct, reflecting their acknowledgement that project management research (and the examination of project-based firms) does not represent a “special case” or setting, but concerns the practical realities of modern work environments.

More recent analyses have provided some further evidence of this trend; for example, the huge increase in the average number of citations from general management journals or those relating to Human Resource Management, Organizational Behavior, or Education themes. Indeed, both of these categories have now supplanted Decision Science journals as the top classes for citations in IEEE-TEM, suggesting that not only is the literature becoming increasingly diverse, but the academics and researchers conducting work and publishing in the journal are either themselves from a number of allied disciplines or are able to tap into these journal outlets. Further, the fact that these categories contain the largest average number of citations suggests that the topics in project management have become increasingly diverse and often of a “business-oriented” nature.

Project research methods are diverse and evolving

The various research methodologies employed in conducting project management work are showing increasing sophistication and methodological rigor. As we noted at the beginning of the chapter, many of the original works in the major journals were anecdotal, single-case analyses, or “war stories” aimed at addressing means for improving some specific project management tool or technique. Increasingly, the methods and research approaches have become more varied and grounded in rigorous methods, including field research, surveys, and modeling, with commensurately rigorous evaluation approaches (multivariate statistical techniques). The overall effect of this advance in research methods has been to develop a knowledge base that is more generalizable and valuable to practitioners and researchers alike.

Research themes continue to evolve within the field

Research trend analysis demonstrated that certain themes grew in importance over the twenty-year timeframe, as evidenced both by the topics selected and the citation patterns within those journals. For example, there has been a significant increase in papers related to the themes of risk, HR management, partnering and alliances, and project-based firms. These trends are supported by the work of Crawford, Pollack, and England ( 2006 ) and Anbari, Bredillet, and Turner ( 2010 ) who noted the emergence of certain themes through a meta-analytic, longitudinal study of project research. Among their findings was the notion that some themes (for example, Strategic Alignment) are growing topics in the field while others, such as Quality Management, appear to be of decreasing significance. The larger question, of course, is whether these trends reflect opportunities for research to “fill in the gaps,” as some authors suggest (cf. Morris 2001 ; Themistocleous and Wearne 2000 ) or if they in fact reflect a de-emphasis due to the sense of over-saturation or the failure for new dimensions of these themes to be shown as relevant for project-based work.

It is, of course, common for research trends to evolve; in fact, one could cogently argue that such evolution demonstrates the overall vibrancy of the field as more work is done along broader themes or academics from other disciplines seek to understand project-based firms from alternative perspectives. In better understanding the evolving nature of research in project-based firms, future work would be well served to move beyond the analysis of the trends themselves and perhaps attempt a harder, but more intriguing study of the question of “why” such trends evolve; that is, what are the identifiable forces that influence these changing project research themes?

Conclusions

As we have noted, the field of project management, as a research and academic discipline, has seen a significant increase in trend analysis in recent years. Trends, as they pertain to the evolution of topics, research methods, publication outlets, number of topical papers published, and comparisons in these trends across the top project management outlets, have all been explored with increasing frequency. Through the subsequent half century, project management research has shown dramatic evidence of expansion, both in breadth of topics covered as well as the sheer volume of papers produced on different aspects of the field. This interest in better understanding and reconceptualizing the field of project management from an output perspective (knowledge creation and dissemination) bespeaks a positive attitude toward the future of project management research.

It is interesting to consider future directions for project management research. This chapter, as well as the recent work of Morris ( 2001 ) and Kwak and Anbari ( 2009 ), has analyzed publication patterns both as a means to determine how the field has progressed (as evidenced by the topics covered and methods employed) over time as well as to identify obvious “holes” that bear research investigation. This latter theme is illustrated by Morris ( 2001 ) who compared his research findings with the current bodies of knowledge to ascertain those topics that were being researched versus those that offered opportunities for investigation.

Alternatively, an intriguing strategy would be to approach the study of project management research from the academics' perspective. Work to date has employed the journals as the means for information regarding research trends; however, a counter-argument could be made for addressing the “source” of project management research. That is, it would be interesting to identify and sample fifty of the leading project management researchers to understand their agendas, perspectives on strong research opportunities, and perceived future opportunities. Comparing their perspectives with an equal sample of mid- to high-level practitioners and executives would allow for some triangulation in pinpointing current needs and subsequent gaps in the literature.

But we should not get carried away too quickly. As Bredillet ( 2009 : 2) has noted, “the evolution of project management models does not necessarily represent the incremental sophistication of project management methods.” That is, the manner in which we change our perceptions of project management, including the theoretical models we use to describe it, does not presume that older project management methods were wrong, per se. Our work seeks to broaden theory rather than substitute one theory for another. Project research more and more represents this broadening of methods, recognizing the contingency effects of industries and project classes that make the discipline both exciting and unique.

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