The State of the Systems Engineering Discipline: A Longitudinal Analysis of INCOSE International Symposium Contributions (2012–2025)

Abstract

This first-of-its-kind meta-analysis provides unprecedented insights into systems engineering's evolution through a comprehensive examination of fourteen years of INCOSE International Symposium contributions. By analyzing over 4,000 submissions from nearly 5,000 authors, this study delivers unique value through three interconnected analyses: The Authors Analysis reveals a distinctive “hourglass network” where 10% of contributors generate 43% of intellectual output, alongside a critical 94% first-year attrition rate. This social architecture illuminates both resilience mechanisms and vulnerability points within the knowledge ecosystem, offering stakeholders targeted intervention opportunities for community development. The Topics Analysis documents the discipline's methodological transformation, quantifying the shift toward model-based systems engineering (MBSE) growing from 30% to 40% while revealing persistent knowledge gaps in theoretical foundations and empirical validation. The detailed taxonomic classification exposes high-value research frontiers at disciplinary intersections previously unidentified. The Acceptance Analysis uncovers systematic patterns in knowledge validation, demonstrating how acceptance rates have tightened year-over-year (90% to 40%) while certain submission characteristics significantly impact outcomes. This evidence-based filter mechanism provides contributors with strategic insights for knowledge dissemination. Through synthesizing these analyses, this research provides a cohesive portrait of a discipline at an inflection point—transitioning from practice-driven origins toward greater formalization. For INCOSE leadership, educators, and practitioners, these integrated insights enable data-driven strategies to strengthen community resilience, address knowledge gaps, and enhance systems engineering's capacity to tackle the increasingly complex sociotechnical challenges of the 21st century.