Design Science: Why, What and How – Revisited
Authors:
- Panos PapalambrosPanos Papalambros
- John GeroJohn Gero
- Anja MaierAnja Maier
- Jonathan CaganJonathan Cagan
- Saeema Ahmed-KristensenSaeema Ahmed-Kristensen
- Albert AlbersAlbert Albers
- Kurt AprilKurt April
- Lucienne BlessingLucienne Blessing
- Jean-Francois BoujutJean-Francois Boujut
- Marco CantamessaMarco Cantamessa
- Gaetano CasciniGaetano Cascini
- Amaresh ChakrabartiAmaresh Chakrabarti
Open Access
- 18 November 2025
- journal article
- editorial
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Design Science
- Vol. 11, e48
Abstract
Design Science is the discipline that studies the creation of artifacts – products, services, and systems and their embedding in our physical, virtual, psychological, economic, and social environments. This editorial is a collective effort of the Design Science Journal’s editorial board members, past and present. The journal’s inaugural 2015 editorial, “Design Science: Why, What and How,” reflected the thoughts and vision of that first editorial board for the new journal and the discipline it represented. The present contribution offers the reflections of editors who served the journal in the past 10 years. The individual contributions were not primed and are presented here unedited for conformity or consistency. Differently from the 2015 editorial, there is no effort to synthesize the individual contributions, leaving the task to our readers, who can draw their own conclusions about the Design Science Journal and community accomplishments to date, and the challenges ahead.Keywords
This publication has 80 references indexed in Scilit:
- TODAY’S MOST CRITICAL LEADERSHIP SKILL: NAVIGATING PARADOXESLeader to Leader, 2022
- Designing for Human Behaviour in a Systemic World2022
- Engineering Systems Design: A Look to the Future2022
- Asking Effective Questions: Awareness of Bias in Designerly Thinking2022
- Handbook of Engineering Systems Design2022
- Qualitative methods for engineering systems: Why we need them and how to use themSystems Engineering, 2017
- Management of Innovation and Product Development2016
- Design Heuristics in Engineering Concept GenerationJournal of Engineering Education, 2012
- Transferring Design Methods into Practice2011
- DRM, a Design Research Methodology2009