Table 1. Database-specific search strategies
Database Search fields Search strategy
Concept blocks - Sport concept: basketball; data concept: tracking, player tracking, positional data, positional, spatial, spatiotemporal, and trajectory
PubMed/MEDLINE MeSH + Title/ Abstract ("Basketball"[Mesh] OR basketball[Title/Abstract]) AND (tracking[Title/Abstract] OR "player tracking"[Title/Abstract] OR "positional data"[Title/Abstract] OR positional[Title/Abstract] OR spatial[Title/Abstract] OR spatiotemporal[Title/Abstract] OR trajectory[Title/Abstract])
Scopus TITLE-ABS-KEY TITLE-ABS-KEY(basketball) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY(tracking OR "player tracking" OR "positional data" OR positional OR spatial OR spatiotemporal OR trajectory)
Web of Science Topic (TS) TS = (basketball) AND TS = (tracking OR "player tracking" OR "positional data" OR positional OR spatial OR spatiotemporal OR trajectory)
Google Scholar Supplementary search Searched on 4 September 2025 using the following combinations: “basketball” “positional data”; “basketball” “tracking data”; “basketball” “spatial analysis”; “basketball” “spatiotemporal analysis”; “basketball” “tactical analysis”; “basketball” “performance analysis” “spatial”; “basketball” “performance analysis” “spatiotemporal”; “basketball” “player tracking” “tactical”. Results were sorted by relevance, and the first 20 pages were screened. Screening stopped after page 20 because subsequent pages did not yield records that appeared potentially eligible based on title and snippet screening. Records identified from Google Scholar were exported or recorded manually and imported into EndNote for de-duplication with records from the primary databases.
Limits applied - English language; peer-reviewed journal articles; searches conducted up to 15 September 2025. No study-design filter was applied during the search stage.