Representative Literature Reviews Using Constrained Snowball Sampling and Citation Network Analysis
Open accessAbstract
We present here a new method for literature reviews that utilizes citation network analysis from academic databases. Special attention is paid to the construction of the citation network in order to ensure that the sample contains key publications in the field. Keyword searches in databases can be misleading because keywords are not used consistently across publications. Snowball sampling is onerous because the sample grows at an exponential rate. Constrained snowball sampling (limiting the percentage of articles collected at each level) is presented as a feasible and effective alternative that allows for robust citation analysis using a small fraction of the data. The methodology is outlined here. Free software for the R environment is also available.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Snowballing procedures are good alternatives to database searches.
“As initial strategies, these procedures have been shown to be good alternatives to the use of database searches [14, 15].”
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Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
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- Authors
- Lecy, J. D., & Beatty, K. E.
- Affiliations
- Arizona State University (US)
- Saint Louis University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lecy, Jesse D.
- Venue
- SSRN Electronic Journal
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012
- ISSN
- 1556-5068 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1499565482
- Cited by
- 133
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 2
- Type
- posted content
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › scientometrics and bibliometrics research
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › Meta-analysis and systematic reviews
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Web visibility and informetrics
- Keywords
- citation network analysis, citation analysis, keyword search limitations, sample size reduction, R package
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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