Skip to main content
Log in

An assessment of the quality of the search strategy: a case of bibliometric studies published in business and economics

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This research aims to evaluate the quality of the literature search strategy of recently published bibliometric studies in the field of Business and Economics. The search strategy is evaluated from two perspectives, i.e., reporting quality and the ability of search query to find relevant literature. Results showed that selected bibliometric studies did not report their search strategies effectively. Particularly, keyword selection, complete search query and search space are not reported adequately. Results also revealed that the search query quality was not good in most cases, especially in selecting the appropriate synonyms, applying the Boolean operators, and applying the appropriate search space. Further, this research recommended a “crisscross” strategy to extract the relevant literature. It is suggested that future studies can increase the search query quality by adopting the suggested framework.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. We started this article in June 2022 and completed in January 2023. Since, the project was started in mid of 2022, therefore the recent year at that time was taken as 2021.

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Umar Farooq.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Farooq, U., Nasir, A. & Khan, K.I. An assessment of the quality of the search strategy: a case of bibliometric studies published in business and economics. Scientometrics 128, 4855–4874 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-023-04765-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-023-04765-8

Keywords

Navigation