The Growth of Indian LIS Thesis Production (1980–2024): A Phased Analysis and Academic Genealogical Networks

This study examines the growth of Library and Information Science (LIS) doctoral research in India from 1980 to 2024. The study analyses metadata from 3,360 doctoral theses collected from the Shodhganga repository. Earlier studies mainly counted theses and measured university productivity. They gave little attention to long-term growth, supervisor–student networks, or academic genealogy. To address this gap, the study combines bibliometric analysis, network analysis, academic genealogy, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression. The results show that LIS doctoral research passed through four development phases: Foundation, Consolidation, Expansion, and Maturation. Thesis production increased rapidly after the late 1990s and reached its highest level between 2013 and 2019. Research output was highly concentrated in a few states, especially Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Maharashtra, and in a small number of universities. Correlation and regression analyses show that supervisory capacity is more strongly associated with thesis production than the number of universities. Analysis of the reconstructed supervisory genealogies indicates that only a limited number of supervisors developed multi-generational research lineages within the available Shodhganga records, highlighting the role of mentorship in the development of Indian LIS research. The study provides a clear framework for understanding the growth, structure, and evolution of LIS doctoral education. It offers useful evidence for research policy, doctoral supervision, and higher education planning.