PhD, Associate Professor L.V. Safonov¹
Dr.Hab., Professor B.N. Shustin^1
1Federal Scientific Center for Physical Culture and Sport, Moscow

Keywords: physical education and sports, biomedical theses, Olympic/ non-Olympic sports, research thrusts.

Background. Modern progress trends in the national science may be analyzed by statistics of the theses in every research field [2-5]. Analytical overviews of the physical-education-and-sports-related theses and other study reports make it possible to identify the physical education and sports science progress trends classified by the key multiannual research thrusts [1]. The physical-education-and-sports-related theses in particular, are important for insight to the physical education and sports sector progress, accomplishments, resources and priorities for the theoretical and practical studies on the whole and biomedical research in particular. Biomedical theses in the physical education and sport sector are still second in numbers to the dissertations in pedagogics in spite of their high importance for the practical sports science as a basis for the athletic progress tests, analyses and training systems [6].

Objective of the study was to analyze the topics of biomedical theses for the biology PhD and Doctoral degrees defended for the period of 2016-18.  

Methods and structure of the study. We analyzed for the purposes of the study 63 biomedical theses for the biology PhD and Doctoral degrees defended for the period of 2016-18 in the following 8 research specialties: 03.01.09, 03.03.01, 03.03.04, 14.01.08, 14.01.14, 14.02.01, 14.02.02 and 19.00.02.

Results and discussion. We found 52.4% and 47.6% of the MPTs for the study period falling in the medical and biological fields, respectively; with most of the theses (54%) defended in 2016, with the flow thereafter sagging to 28.5% and 17.5% in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The sag was particularly serious for the Doctoral theses – from 5 and 5 in 2016 and 2017 to only 1 medical Doctoral thesis in 2018.

In terms of formal research specialties, leading in numbers of dissertations for the study period were 03.03.01 “Physiology” and 14.03.11 “Rehabilitative Medicine, Sports Medicine, Therapeutic physical training, Balneology and Physiotherapy” specialties that accounted for 42.9% and 39.7% of the total, respectively. In 2016, however, the biomedical theses were defended in 7 research specialties (03.01.09, 03.03.01, 03.03.04, 14.01.08, 14.01.14, 14.02.02, 19.00.02) followed by only three in 2017 (03.03.01, 02.14.01, 03.14.11), and two in 2018 (03.03.01, 03.14.11).

We further classified the biomedical theses by the priority physical education and sports research thrusts (including youth physical education and sports; mass physical education and sports; healthy lifestyle cultivation; and the theoretical and practical provisioning for elite sports and sport reserve training systems) for the study period; and found most (52.4%) of the theses addressing the general (sport-unspecific) issues of the sports training systems; followed by 28.6% with concern to specific Olympic and non-Olympic sports training issues; and 14.3% focused on the youth physical education and sports, mass physical education and sports and healthy lifestyle cultivation topics, with more than a half of the latter analyzing the matters of the physical education and sport service for adults. We should note that the biomedical theses in the priority medical and biological physical-education-and-sports-related research fields have contracted 1.7 and 2.8 times in 2017 and 2018 versus 2016, respectively, whilst biomedical theses in the preschool physical education and sports and academic physical education and sports related fields totally disappeared for the last two years.

Furthermore, 18 dissertations for the study period have addressed the issues of the sport-specific trainings in Olympic (10 research theses) and non-Olympic (8 research theses) sport disciplines. Of special interest for the researchers were cyclic sports and martial arts followed by team sports and complex coordination intensive sports. It should be emphasized that the numbers of sport-specific research theses have been falling for the study period. More detailed analyses showed 41.5% of the theses reporting new sport-specific health disorders prevention and cure methods (with 7, 4 and 3 theses focused on the cardiovascular diseases, central nervous system diseases and visual impairments, respectively); 23.9% reporting innovations in the physical sport-specific training systems further classified into Olympic and non-Olympic sports and other sport categories, with 4 and 4 theses reporting novelties in the physiotherapeutic systems and pharmacological support methods, respectively. 11.2% of the dissertations reported benefits of the new physiological functionality test systems for selections and analyzed other sport-specific physiological aspects; and 9.4% of the dissertations analyzed biomedical methods for health and fitness applicable in elite sports.

Our analysis of the modern physical-education-and-sports-related biomedical theses showed some regress in the numbers of PhD and Doctoral theses for the last three years, with the particularly significant recession of the research interests in the preschool physical education and sports, academic youth physical education and sports, biomedical provisions for physical education and sports and mass physical education and sports related matters. It should be mentioned that more than a half of the biomedical theses for the study period covered general sport-unspecific training issues, with a special priority to the disease-prevention physical education and sport service, health and physical fitness tests in sports and mass physical education and sports; whilst the issues of sport-specific trainings in Olympic and non-Olympic sports have been given less attention. Most of the biomedical research theses (more than a half) for the study period reported innovations in training systems in cyclic sports and martial arts.

Conclusion. Our analysis of the modern physical-education-and-sports-related biomedical theses showed some regress in the numbers of PhD and Doctoral theses for the last three years, with the particularly significant recession of the research interests in preschool physical education and sports, academic youth physical education and sports, biomedical provisions for physical education and sports and mass physical education and sports related matters – explainable by a general reduction of interest in these research fields on the one hand and more stringent requirements to the research theses on the other hand, that could have been of inhibition effect on the interest of young researchers.

References

1. Baranov V.N., Shustin B.N. Comparative analysis of development of dissertation research in physical education and sports for 1935–2015 (USSR and Russian Federation). Vestnik sportivnoy nauki. 2015. no. 4. pp.  3-10.
2. Baranov V.N., Shustin B.N. Theses on physical culture and sports published in 2015: topics and quantitative analysis. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2016. no. 9. pp. 94-97.
3. Zinchenko Yu.P., Evdokimov V.I., Rybnikov V.Yu. Analysis of domestic and foreign dissertations in the field of medical (clinical) psychology (1990–2011). Vestnik moskovskogo universiteta. Ser. 14. Psikhologiya. 2014. no. 2 pp. 3-15.
4. Evdokimov V.I., Karvasarskiy B.D., Zotova A.V. Analysis of research areas presented in the dissertations in 19.00.04 - “Medical Psychology” (1980-2011). Vestnik psikhoterapii. 2012. no. 43 (48). pp. 21-37.
5. Laptev V.V., Larchenkova L.A. Problems of dissertation research in physical education. Voprosy obrazovaniya. 2016.no. 4. pp. 31-58.
6. Fudin N.A., Khadartsev A.A., Orlov V.A. Problems of dissertation research in physical education. M.: Sport publ., 2018. 320 p.

Corresponding author: rudra54@yandex.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to analyze the topics of biomedical theses for the biology PhD and Doctoral degrees defended for the period of 2016-18. 

Methods and structure of the study. We analyzed for the purposes of the study 63 biomedical theses for the biology PhD and Doctoral degrees defended for the period of 2016-18 in the following 8 research specialties: 03.01.09, 03.03.01, 03.03.04, 14.01.08, 14.01.14, 14.02.01, 14.02.02 and 19.00.02.

Results and conclusions.  Our analysis of the modern physical-education-and-sports-related biomedical theses showed some regress in the numbers of PhD and Doctoral theses for the last three years, with the particularly significant recession of the research interests in preschool physical education and sports, academic youth physical education and sports, biomedical provisions for physical education and sports and mass physical education and sports related matters – explainable by a general reduction of interest in these research fields on the one hand and more stringent requirements to the research theses on the other hand, that could have been of inhibition effect on the interest of young researchers.