  The evolution of a Master's programme, like many other human institutions,
can be viewed as a self-organising system whose underlying structures and
dynamics arise primarily from the interaction of its faculty and students.
Identifying these hidden properties may not be a trivial task, due to the
complex behaviour implicit in such evolution. Nonetheless, we argue that the
programme's body of research production (represented mainly by dissertations)
can serve this purpose. Bibliometric analyses of such data can reveal insights
about production growth, collaborative networks, and visual mapping of
established, niche, and emerging research topics, among other facets. Thus, we
propose a bibliometric workflow aimed at discovering the production dynamics,
as well as the conceptual, social and intellectual structures developed by the
Master's degree, in the interest of guiding decision-makers to better assess
the strengths of the programme and to prioritise strategic goals. In addition,
we report two case studies to illustrate the realisation of the proposed
workflow. We conclude with considerations on the possible application of the
approach to other academic research units.
