Excellent! Creating a visual map of blockchain literature across sectors requires a systematic approach, especially during the initial broad search. This first phase is about casting a wide net to understand the major themes, applications, and prominent research areas.

Here’s a detailed guide to conducting a broad search to capture the landscape:

Phase 1: Defining Your Scope and Strategy

Before diving into search engines, clarify what you're looking for.

• Objective: To identify key research papers, review articles, and industry reports on blockchain technology applications across various sectors. The goal is breadth to understand the landscape, not immediate depth into specific solutions.


• Key Questions to Answer (for your future map):


• Which sectors are most heavily researched/developed for blockchain applications?


• What are the most common application types within these sectors (e.g., supply chain traceability, financial payments, digital identity)?


• What are the prominent challenges and opportunities highlighted for blockchain in different sectors?


• Are there common technological approaches (e.g., public vs. private chains, specific consensus mechanisms) used in certain sectors?


• Who are the key researchers, institutions, or companies driving this work?


• Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria (Initial thoughts):


• Timeframe: Focus on recent literature (e.g., 2017-present) as the field is evolving rapidly. However, don't completely exclude seminal papers from earlier if they established foundational concepts.


• Document Types: Include peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, review articles, survey papers, whitepapers from reputable organizations, and possibly influential industry reports. Exclude news articles, blog posts (unless from highly authoritative sources), or opinion pieces for this academic mapping.


• Language: Primarily English.

Phase 2: Keyword Generation

This is crucial for comprehensive results. Brainstorm keywords related to the core technology, its applications, and different sectors.

1. Core Technology Keywords:

• blockchain


• distributed ledger technology


• DLT


• decentralized ledger


• web3 (increasingly relevant for applications)


• smart contract (often the enabler for applications)

• application


• use case


• implementation


• solution


• framework


• case study


• adoption


• deployment


• ecosystem

• Finance: finance, banking, fintech, payments, remittances, securities, trade finance, DeFi, decentralized finance, asset management, capital markets, insurance


• Supply Chain & Logistics: supply chain, logistics, traceability, provenance, tracking, authenticity, customs, shipping, freight, manufacturing


• Healthcare & Pharma: healthcare, medical records, EHR, patient data, pharma, pharmaceuticals, drug traceability, clinical trials, medical supply chain


• Energy: energy, grid, power, microgrid, renewables, energy trading, carbon credit, sustainability


• Government & Public Sector: e-governance, digital identity, voting, land registry, public records, taxation, citizen services, smart cities


• Real Estate: real estate, property, land title, deeds, tokenization


• Media & Entertainment: media, entertainment, copyright, IP rights, royalties, NFTs, gaming


• IoT & Smart Devices: IoT, Internet of Things, edge computing, sensor data (often cross-sector but important integration point)


• Food & Agriculture: food supply chain, agriculture, farm to table, food safety


• Education: education, academic credentials, diplomas, records


• Legal & Compliance: legaltech, regulation, compliance, data privacy

• review


• survey


• mapping study


• systematic literature review


• taxonomy


• state of the art

Phase 3: Selecting Databases & Search Platforms

Use a variety of sources to ensure comprehensive coverage.

1. Academic Databases (Peer-Reviewed Literature):

• Scopus / Web of Science: Excellent for interdisciplinary searches, citation analysis, and identifying highly cited papers.


• IEEE Xplore Digital Library: Strong for engineering, computer science, and technology applications.


• ACM Digital Library: Focus on computer science, algorithms, and software.


• SpringerLink / ScienceDirect (Elsevier): Broad scientific and technical content.


• Google Scholar: Great for a very broad initial sweep, finding papers across various repositories, and identifying citations. Be aware of varying quality.


• arXiv / SSRN: For pre-prints and working papers, useful for very recent developments not yet peer-reviewed.

• Consulting Firms: Deloitte, PwC, EY, Accenture, IBM, Gartner, Forrester (often publish excellent trend reports and use cases).


• Industry Consortia/Organizations: World Economic Forum, Hyperledger, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, etc.


• Blockchain Protocol Websites: Ethereum Foundation, Solana Foundation, Cardano Foundation, etc. (for technical whitepapers and ecosystem updates).

• Google Patents / USPTO / EPO: Can show where companies are investing in R&D and potential future applications.

Phase 4: Crafting Effective Search Queries

Combine your keywords using Boolean logic and advanced search features.

1. General Broad Searches (Start here):

• ("blockchain" OR "distributed ledger technology" OR "DLT") AND ("application" OR "use case" OR "solution")


• ("blockchain" OR "DLT") AND ("review" OR "survey" OR "mapping study") AND ("application" OR "use case") (This is critical to find existing literature reviews that can save you significant time by providing a pre-categorized overview).

• ("blockchain" OR "DLT") AND ("finance" OR "banking" OR "fintech" OR "DeFi") AND ("application" OR "use case")


• ("blockchain" OR "DLT") AND ("supply chain" OR "logistics" OR "traceability") AND ("application" OR "use case")


• ("blockchain" OR "DLT") AND ("healthcare" OR "medical records" OR "pharma") AND ("application" OR "use case")

• Boolean Operators: AND, OR, NOT (e.g., blockchain AND application NOT cryptocurrency)


• Phrase Searching: Use quotation marks for exact phrases (e.g., "smart contract", "supply chain traceability").


• Wildcards/Truncation: Use to find variations (e.g., blockchai finds blockchain, blockchains; securit* finds security, securities).


• Field Searching: Most databases allow searching within specific fields (e.g., TITLE("blockchain application"), ABSTRACT("supply chain"), KEYWORDS("DLT")).


• Proximity Operators: (e.g., blockchain NEAR/3 supply chain – finds "blockchain" within 3 words of "supply chain").

(TITLE-ABS-KEY ("blockchain" OR "distributed ledger technology" OR "DLT")) AND (TITLE-ABS-KEY ("application" OR "use case" OR "solution" OR "implement" OR "framework*")) AND (TITLE-ABS-KEY ("finance" OR "banking" OR "fintech" OR "DeFi" OR "supply chain" OR "logistics" OR "healthcare" OR "medical" OR "energy" OR "government" OR "public sector" OR "real estate" OR "media" OR "IoT" OR "education" OR "agriculture" OR "legaltech"))
Adjust the list of sectors for a broader or more focused initial search.

Phase 5: Executing the Search and Initial Filtering

1. Systematic Approach:

• Keep a log of your search queries, the databases used, the date, and the number of results obtained. This is crucial for transparency and reproducibility.


• Start with broad searches, then progressively refine.

• Publication Year: Limit to recent years (e.g., last 5-7 years). If you find a seminal paper, you can expand.


• Document Type: Filter for "Article," "Conference Paper," "Review," "Survey."


• Language: English.


• Subject Area: If available, filter to relevant areas like Computer Science, Engineering, Business, Social Sciences.

• Rapidly go through the titles and abstracts of the search results.


• Look for direct relevance to blockchain applications in different sectors.


• Exclude papers focused solely on the underlying cryptographic principles, pure technical optimizations, or specific cryptocurrency trading (unless directly related to a financial application).

• Once you find highly relevant papers (especially review articles or highly cited papers), use their reference lists to identify other important works (backward snowballing).


• Look for papers that cite these key papers (forward snowballing) – this can reveal newer, related research.

• Use a reference manager from the start (e.g., Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote).


• Import all potentially relevant papers. This allows you to deduplicate, organize, add tags (e.g., by sector, application type), and make notes for future analysis.

Phase 6: Initial Scan and Iteration

1. Deduplicate: Reference managers will help you identify and remove duplicate entries.
2. Read Abstracts & Keywords: For the remaining papers, read abstracts and keywords more carefully. Assign preliminary tags or categories (e.g., "Finance-Payments," "Supply Chain-Traceability," "Healthcare-EHR").
3. Refine Keywords & Re-Search: Based on the common themes and specific application terms you discover in the initial scan, refine your keywords. You might find new, more specific terms for sectors or applications that you hadn't initially considered.
4. Identify Gaps: Note if certain sectors or application types seem underrepresented – this might be a genuine gap or an indication that your keywords aren't capturing them.

Tools for Search Management:

• Reference Managers (Zotero/Mendeley): Essential for organizing, deduplicating, and tagging papers.


• Spreadsheet (Excel/Google Sheets): For an initial manual triage if you have too many results, or to log your search strings and result counts. You can also export metadata from reference managers to a spreadsheet for easier initial high-level categorization.


• Mind Mapping Software (e.g., XMind, Miro, Lucidchart): Even at this stage, you can start jotting down emerging sectors and application clusters as you find them, providing a very nascent "visual map."

By following these steps, you'll build a robust and comprehensive collection of literature that forms the foundation for your visual map. The next stage will involve detailed data extraction, categorization, and actual visualization. Good luck!