The study focuses on the intersection between university governance and scientific research in the context of higher education, which is necessary to study due to its relevance to the purpose of higher education institutions in fulfilling their mission in society. A qualitative methodology with a descriptive scope was employed, using discourse analysis. Documentary units, such as scientific articles, were selected to construct a comprehensive sample of the relevant aspects of both topics, university governance and scientific research, from January 1975 to April 2024. Through inductive open coding, significant fragments were organized into codes, analyzing them in terms of frequency and significance. Overlaps in significant segments were identified, allowing for the understanding of the frequency of co-occurrences between the codes and revealing links between various categories. The results were represented in a category map that interconnects conceptual nodes, as well as in frequency tables and descriptions of significant segments. A consensus map was created to visualize the most relevant and agreed-upon findings of the study, generating the contribution of an integrated description of different relevant factors in the areas of governance and scientific research. Overall, this study offers a comprehensive view of research, the university, the role of the professor, knowledge, performance, and governance in universities, highlighting the interaction between educational quality and governance models. The limitations of this research lie in its documentary scope, with future lines of investigation involving the analysis of primary qualitative and quantitative data. However, its relevance lies in its integrated description of the different factors involved in the relationship between governance and research.