An analysis of theses on global warming and climate change in Turkey (2021–2025)

Global warming and climate change have evolved into multidimensional crises impacting not only the environment but also the economic, social, and political spheres worldwide. In this context, postgraduate theses prepared in higher education institutions play a crucial role in both academic knowledge production and the shaping of environmental policies. This study aims to contribute to the monitoring of academic trends and methodological diversity in Turkey by providing a holistic evaluation of theses written on global warming and climate change. The research examines postgraduate theses completed in Turkey from 2021 onwards using both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. Document analysis, a qualitative research method, was employed, and content analysis was used for data interpretation. Theses were categorized by publication year, university, sample group, research method, data collection tool, and discipline. In this way, the basic trends of academic studies in this field in Turkey and the existing research gaps were systematically presented. A total of 630 theses were retrieved from the National Thesis Center (YÖKTEZ), of which 605 met the structural and methodological criteria and were included in the sample. The findings reveal a significant rise in thesis production in 2023 and 2024, with 2024 being the year with the highest output (216 theses). Among 209 universities in Turkey, 127 (60.8%) produced at least one thesis on these topics. The leading institutions were Middle East Technical University (n=28), Istanbul Technical University (n=27), and Istanbul University (n=26). Literature-based studies constituted the most common sample group (23.8%), followed by field data (15.4%) and meteorological data (8.2%). A total of 25 research methods were identified, with quantitative research (15.7%), qualitative research (12.5%), and document analysis (11.6%) being the most frequently used. Notably, 15.9% of the theses lacked reported methodology. As for data collection tools, documents (16.6%), survey forms (12.7%), and semi-structured interviews (10.4%) were predominant. The majority of theses were concentrated in education (9.3%), civil engineering (7.6%), public administration (7.1%), agriculture (6.3%), economics (6.1%), and urban and regional planning (6.0%), collectively representing 60.4% of the total, thus emphasizing the interdisciplinary nature of the field. The year with the highest production was 2024. The overall findings suggest a growing academic interest in global warming and climate change in Turkey, accompanied by an increasingly interdisciplinary approach in related research