Two decades apart and looking forward – exploring rigour in reporting on research in the engineering design research community

The engineering design research community is engaged in a long-standing and lively debate about what defines design as a uniquefield of research. This includes a discourse on a rigorous way of con-ducting research through various academic outlets germane to thecommunity. This paper explores the current state of rigour in report-ing engineering design research by analysing the proceedings of tworecent ICED conferences and comparing the results with those ofan identical analysis of an equivalent set of ICED proceedings pub-lished exactly 20 years earlier. A lack of such rigour ultimately permitslower quality work to prevail as it sets poor examples for youngresearchers and affects credibility and trustworthiness of the field.The data shows the significant improvements made and identifiespotential areas to address. By establishing the current state of rigourin reporting considered acceptable in the community for one of itsmain conferences and how this has evolved, the paper allows us toinfer trajectory and formulate concrete recommendations for furtherimprovement.