Resume content research across disciplines: an analysis of ProQuest from 1984-2018
| Published date | 19 December 2019 |
| Pages | 81-94 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-07-2019-0175 |
| Date | 19 December 2019 |
| Author | John DiMarco,Sofia Fasos |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Resume content research across
disciplines: an analysis of
ProQuest from 1984-2018
John DiMarco and Sofia Fasos
Department of Mass Communication, St. John’s University, Queens,
New York, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study is to offeroriginal analysis to examine the prevalence of publication
titles, subtopicsand methods present in peer-reviewed articles containingthe search term “resume content”in
ProQuestCentral.
Design/methodology/approach –As a means for understandingbetter the scope of empirical studies in
resumes, a limited searchwas conducted in ProQuest to build a data set of research articles under the limited
search heading of “resume content”.Using ProQuest Central, a popular repository of peer reviewed,indexed
articles for databasesearches in academic and institutional settings, theresearchers queried a 34-year period,
from 1984 to 2018. The qualitative content analysis included recording the respective scholarly disciplines
populating the articles, the publication subject titles, identification of subtopics that inhabit the empirical
works in the dataset across time and recognition of the methodologies evidentin the 47-article population set.
Findings –The analysis revealed six subtopics, which included content, gender, recruitment, social,
branding and ethnicity. The highest concentration of articles appeared in psychology, business and
management publications, with the highest subtopic concentrations published in the areas of content and
recruitment. Evidence of methodologies was also observed. The 34-year population consisted of 30 works
using quantitative methods, seven with qualitative methods, six with mixed methods and four with no
evidencedmethod –only offering instructional content. These findingsoffer insight to resume content articles
on the ProQuest Centraldatabases.
Research limitations/implications –Although highly accessed and respected as an initial source
for searching academic knowledge bases, using ProQuest Central created the limitation of one
aggregate database search, with limited indexes, coupled with a focus on specific terms which limited
the data set and breadth of the study. In addition, this study was limited in building a data set using one
setofspecific terms, rather than testing and comparing more search terms, which could be a strategy for
future studies.
Practical implications –These findings outline the need for empirically grounded advice to inform
teachers, professors and career counselors tasked with helping students with resume content creation,
whether formally or informally. Understanding the disciplines and domains that are publishing resume
content research provideda window into seeing how future studiescan delve deeper into these search terms
to harvest pinpointed articles that can benefit practitioners and researchers with interdisciplinary
opportunities to marry resume contentresearch with other domains. This has practical implications for the
depth of scientificallydrawn knowledge available on resumecontent and creation.
Social implications –Resume creation and the teaching of resume content and design can be rooted
better in research-baseddata rather than anecdotalsuggestions from faculty, staff, teachersand advisors.
Originality/value –This original study illuminates that the evolution of resume research is slow on
ProQuest, with a smallgroup of disciplines yielding a majority of the researcharticles. This knowledge may
help drive future studies and build a greater conversation on the need for empirical work in teaching and
mentoringstudents in resume development at the secondary and post-secondarylevels.
Keywords Information research, Scholarly communication, Resumes, ProQuest,
Scholarly communications
Paper type Research paper
Resume
content
research
81
Received27 July 2019
Revised22 October 2019
Accepted2 December 2019
TheElectronic Library
Vol.38 No. 1, 2020
pp. 81-94
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-07-2019-0175
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