Table 3.

Research questions

RQ1: What are the essential characteristics of clinical studies in information system literature? RQ1.1 What is the contribution type of the study? RQ1.2 What is the trend in the number of studies over the years? RQ1.3 What are the types of affiliations associated with the authors?

RQ2: What are the requirements and specifications of healthcare/clinical research? RQ2.1 What does clinical research experience the challenges/requirements? RQ2.2 What solutions or use cases does blockchain offer to address these challenges?

RQ3: Have the studies or systems in clinical research been subjected to validation or verification processes? RQ3.1 What methods are employed to validate study data and the system’s performance? RQ3.2 Can the study data and methodologies be reused or repeated? RQ3.3 Have any metrics been determined for the evaluation process?

RQ4: What are the applications of information systems used in clinical studies? RQ4.1 What is the general category of information system/systems used? RQ4.2 What are the requirements or functions associated with using information systems, excluding blockchain?

RQ5 What are the applications of blockchain technology in the healthcare research domain? RQ5.1 Which primary features of blockchain are intended for utilization with health data? RQ5.2 Which blockchain platform was used on clinical research/health data? RQ5.3 Is the blockchain framework permissioned, consortium, or public? RQ5.4 What types of data are stored on the blockchain, and is off-chain or on-chain data storage utilized?

RQ6 What are the requirements for implementing blockchain technology in healthcare research? RQ6.1 What are the strengths and challenges associated with implementing blockchain technology? RQ6.2 What solutions are employed to address these difficulties?

RQ7 What services, standards, regulations, and protocols are used with blockchain technology in the healthcare research domain?