Bibliometric Analysis of Graduate Theses Written with System Dynamics Approach in Turkey

System dynamics is an effective tool or field of knowledge for understanding the change and complexity of a system over time. The system dynamics approach, which has made significant progress in the first 50 years of its emergence, has spread to many different fields of science, especially engineering. It is known that bibliometric studies on the system dynamics method will be effective in establishing policies for the use, dissemination, and even development of the system dynamics approach, which allows complex systems to be examined in detail using a holistic approach. The aim of this study is to examine the postgraduate theses written using a system dynamics method in Turkey by using the bibliometric analysis technique. In this direction, 274 master's and doctoral thesis studies on the subject published in the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education between 1986-2024/3 were identified and examined. The theses were analyzed by taking into account different characteristics such as the distribution of the theses according to years, the language of publication, the university and department where the thesis was conducted, the title of the thesis, and the keywords used. The findings show that the system dynamics approach is mostly used in the fields of Industrial Engineering and Mechanical Engineering and that most graduate theses on the subject are prepared at Istanbul Technical University and Boğaziçi University. At the same time, it was found that academic studies on system dynamics will increase in the coming years. It is emphasized that the method allows for joint research in different disciplines, multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary research and collaboration in scientific fields to achieve effective results, and it is suggested to expand the areas of use of the system dynamics approach for sustainable solutions to problems.