Systematic Search Process for Doctoral Theses in Centralized Repositories. A Study Case in the Context of Educational Innovation generated by ICT

Educational innovation is a set of ideas, processes, and strategies applied in academic centers to improve teaching and learning processes. The application of Communication and Information Technologies in the field of educational innovation has been fundamental to promote changes that lead to the improvement of administrative and academic processes. However, some studies show the deficient and not very innovative use of technologies in the Latin American region. To determine the existing gap, the authors are executing a project that tries to know the current state of the art on this topic. This study corresponds to the first step of the project. Here, the authors describe the systematic search process designed to find the doctoral theses that have been developed on educational innovation generated by ICT. To meet this objective, the process has three phases: (1) identification of centralized repositories of doctoral theses in Spanish, (2) evaluation of selected repositories according to specific search criteria, and (3) selecting centralized repositories where it is possible to find theses on educational innovation and ICT. The analysis of 5 of the 222 repositories found indicates that each system offers different search characteristics, and the results show that the best option is to combine the sets of results since the theses come from different institutions. Finally, considering that the abilities of users to manage information systems can be diverse, providers and administrators of repositories should enhance their search services in such a way that all users can find and use the resources published.