The references found in at least two different PhD Theses were extracted from the database “Design Doctorates undertaken in Portugal (2001-2020)”. This list of approximately 19,000 lines contains information about the author(s) and co-author(s), year and typology of the reference (e.g. article, book, chapter). It also identifies Portuguese (co)authors. The database allows, for example, to explore which authors and which works are most referenced, by doctoral year and by area of specialisation within design. Cite as: Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Cunca, R., Modesto, A., & Silva, A.C. (2021). Bibliografia dos doutoramentos em design (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5727951