The problem of public acceptance (PA) has become serious since the 1960's in Japan. On the other hand, research on civil engineering has been systemized and grown fast in Japan since the Second World War. So it is important to study the mutual relationship and influences between research on civil engineering and public acceptance. In this paper focusing on dam construction, the characteristics of research in this field are examined. The 497 reports concerning dam construction are selected from the Proceedings of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers, 1944–1993. By calculating the entropy of research, the changes in research activities in this field were studied. It was found that throughout the whole period there is a tendency of increasing entropy, and that the researches have “dynamic properties” such as variation and concentration of activities. Also, it was found that problems concerning the safety and environment of dam construction which cause problems with public acceptance, affect the dynamic properties of research.