Integrating Bibliometrics and Qualitative Content Analysis for Conducting a Literature Review

The literature review is an essential step in any research project, guiding the entire journey from defining the research theme to reaching the study's conclusions. An initial review is vital to obtain an overview of the topic, identify gaps and develop the theoretical framework. However, it is often only after collecting literature data that researchers can truly gauge the utility of their work. In this context, we propose a conceptual model that equips researchers with the tools to make informed decisions, covering both the exploratory phases and in-depth data corpus analysis. This novel approach involves a recursive conceptual model built upon two distinct data analysis techniques: 1) quantitative bibliometric analysis and 2) qualitative content analysis. These techniques will be facilitated by digital tools—specifically, 'R Bibliometrix' and 'webQDA,' respectively. The current paper presents and describes the stages of the exploratory phase, comprising two iterations of analysis. Integrating these two techniques produces a series of outputs, empowering the researcher to determine their research path consistently. Furthermore, this integration facilitates the crucial internal validation of the selected data corpus. One potential limitation is that some studies may require more than two iterations to achieve their objectives.