Table 1.

Scoping search and results

SearchesStringResultNotes
Search 1“Social innovation” AND (“social policy” OR “public policy” OR polic* OR welfare OR reform)8.233 sourcesThis result was too broad
The group of keywords related to “polic*” was isolated from “welfare OR reform”
Search 2“Social innovation” AND (“social policy” OR “public policy” OR polic*) AND (welfare OR reform)2.740 sourcesThe search was refined but lacked sensitivity
The keyword “polic*” was isolated from all the others
The search was also refined using the option “anywhere except full text”, as the phrase “social innovation” is used quite often in texts, which are not related to the research topic
Search 3All (“social innovation” AND polic* AND (social OR public OR welfare OR reform))1.168 sourcesThe result was still too broad and still lacked specificity
The search was narrowed within the confines of the abstract and title to increase specificity
Search 4Ab (“social innovation” AND polic* AND (social OR public OR welfare OR reform))321 sourcesNewspapers, Wire feed, Magazine and Trade Journal were excluded to narrow the results and include only academic literature (including journal articles, reports, working papers)
Search 5Ab (“social innovation” AND polic* AND (social OR public OR welfare OR reform))200 sourcesAcceptable result.

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