Challenges in identifying studies to include in a systematic literature review: an analysis of the organizational growth and decline topics

Purpose This paper aims to check the fragmentation of knowledge across multiple sources of evidence, identifying, scrutinizing and outlining suggestions concerning the challenges researchers face when using multiple sources of data to identify studies. Design/methodology/approach This study produced a comprehensive database of 15,848 items from Scopus, Web of Science and EBSCO on the organizational growth and decline topics. The analyses carried out to check the fragmentation of scientific knowledge and the challenges in identifying studies have made use of the basic data frame functions in R’s language and the Bibliometrix and Corpus R’s packages. Findings This study confirms the fragmentation of scientific knowledge as well as it identifies the following challenges: missing information in key fields, nonexistence of standards in terminology, limitations on data extraction, duplicates and multiple formats of cited reference. Additionally, it suggests practical coping procedures and advances implications for stakeholders and an agenda for future research. Originality/value This study provides valuable and practical examples with empirical confirmation of scientific knowledge fragmentation and offers an integrated view of many challenges in the process of identifying studies. Moreover, by offering suggestions to address these challenges, this study not only offers a practical guide to scientific researchers but also initiates a wider discussion regarding knowledge organizing in social sciences.