Conversations in Evaluation -Exploring 30 years of dialogues and disputes in the community

Based on an original bibliometric analysis, this article examines three decades of Evaluation's publications, focusing on the key conversations and debates that have shaped the journal. Through a network analysis of cross-citations and a systematic quantitative and qualitative review of the Journal's authorship, we identify seven clusters of closely interconnected articles that represent central thematic areas: "evaluative complexity," "theory-based evaluation," "dialogue in evaluation," "evaluation use," "evaluation systems," and "accountability." We detail the content of each cluster, highlighting key authors and specific subtopics, and trace the intellectual exchanges both within and across these thematic boundaries. Our findings reveal a broad conceptual shift over time, with earlier emphases on evaluation use and dialogue giving way to growing interest in evaluation systems and capacity, theory-based approaches and complexity. In sum, we oJer a cross-cutting perspective on some of the evolving debates that have shaped the European evaluation community -or at least its theoretical component -over the long term.