Beyond Coverage: Selecting Academic Databases Across the Research Lifecycle: A Strategic Framework

Academic databases have become essential resources for academic research, supporting literature discovery, evidence synthesis, citation analysis, research evaluation, and scholarly communication. The growing diversity of multidisciplinary, subject-specific, and emerging scholarly databases has made database selection increasingly complex for researchers, universities, and research institutions. Previous studies have primarily compared academic databases based on coverage, indexing quality, citation indicators, and retrieval performance. However, comparatively less attention has been given to how database selection should be aligned with different stages of the research lifecycle, research objectives, disciplinary requirements, and institutional accessibility. Addressing this gap, the present study develops a strategic framework that supports informed and context-specific academic database selection across the research lifecycle. This study adopts a qualitative conceptual research design based on a structured review of scholarly literature, comparative evaluation of major academic databases, and synthesis of database documentation. Major academic databases, including Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, PubMed, Dimensions, and OpenAlex, are evaluated using predefined criteria such as database coverage, indexing characteristics, disciplinary scope, accessibility, citation capabilities, and suitability for different research activities. The findings demonstrate that no single academic database is universally suitable for all research purposes. Instead, effective database selection depends on aligning database characteristics with the research objective, disciplinary context, institutional access, and the specific stage of the research process. Building on these findings, the study proposes an integrated strategic framework that enables researchers, librarians, universities, and research institutions to make informed decisions regarding database selection throughout the research lifecycle. By integrating database characteristics with research needs and institutional considerations, the framework contributes a structured approach for improving information retrieval, research quality, research evaluation, and scholarly decision-making while supporting the strategic use of academic databases in contemporary research environments.