From shades of grey to Web of Science: a systematic review of surf tourism research in international journals (2011–2020)

ABSTRACT

Previous research outlined the genesis of a new body of surf tourism research based on a wide array of gray and published literature (Martin, S. A., & Assenov, I. (2012). The genesis of a new body of sport tourism literature: A systematic review of surf tourism research (1997–2011). Journal of Sport and Tourism, 17(4), 257–287). The aim of this paper is to further investigate the development of the field through an evidence-based informetric analysis of international journal articles listed in Web of Science or Scopus databases. Employing a systematic review of journal papers published from 2011 to 2020, the study addresses the previous gray literature problem of accessibility and eligibility criteria for citation. Findings are drawn from explicit and tangential studies which capture an up-to-date overview of the evolution of surf tourism research. The study identifies active journals, authors, field locations, and leading areas of research, suggesting that the field has entered a period of ‘academic professionalization’. A bibliography of 96 journal articles presents academics and readers with a corpus of accessible research.

KEYWORDS:

• Citation criteria
• Scopus
• surf tourism research
• systematic review
• Web of Science

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my colleagues, Raymond Ritchie and Peter Coan, who assisted in proofreading. I apologize to any authors whose works may have been overlooked and not included in the study. Please send questions, comments, or relevant research to: [email protected]

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The Author acknowledges that published research on other countries exists in books and other academic sources, both in English and other languages, which are beyond the scope of this study.