## 2 Materials and Methods
Initially, Query #1 involved a search for keywords in titles related to the regional or local economy, such as local development, local resilience, local economy, local authorities, regional development, regional resilience, regional economy, and regional authorities, resulting in 14,834 scientific documents. Query #2 focused on keywords related to artificial intelligence (e.g., artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning), resulting in 249,873 scientific articles. The combination of  
these searches, Query #3, identified 20 scientific documents containing both local or regional elements and artificial intelligence. It shall be noted that in the queries provided in Table 1, we have added _\"*\"_ to the end of the search keywords in order to allow to the results to contain various forms of the keyword - e.g. \"regional_authorit\" stands for both the singular (\"regional authority\") and the plural form (\"regional authorities\") of the keyword. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Exploration Steps** & **Questions on Web of Science** & **Description** & **Query** & **Query** & **Count** \\ \hline \multirow{8}{*}{1} & \multirow{8}{*}{Title} & & (((((((T1 = (local_development))) & & \\  & & & OR TI = (local_resilience)) OR & & \\  & & Contains one of the local & TI = (local_econom*)) OR & & \\  & & or regional specific & TI = (local_authorit*) OR & & \\  & & keywords & TI = (regional_development)) & & \\  & & & OR TI = (regional_resilience) & & \\  & & & OR TI = (regional_econom*)) & & \\  & & Title & & OR TI = (regional_authorit*) & & \\ \cline{2-6}  & & \multirow{4}{*}{Contains one of the & ((TI = (artificial_intelligence)) & \\  & & artificial intelligence & OR TI = (machine_learning)) & \#2 & 249,873 \\  & & specific keywords & OR TI = (deep_learning) & & \\ \cline{2-6}  & & \multirow{4}{*}{Contains the & (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( (( ( ( ( ( (                                                                 0 \\\\\\\\\\ & & & OR AB = =  
In abstracts, searching for the same local or regional keywords resulted in 58,188 documents, while the artificial intelligence-related keywords yielded 553,359 documents. By combining these results, 355 scientific articles were identified that include both local or regional and artificial intelligence elements. Keywords were similarly examined, with local or regional keywords resulting in 12,312 documents and artificial intelligence keywords in 359,634 documents. Combining these two identified 22 articles of interest. A comprehensive query combined the title, abstract, and keyword searches, ensuring the capture of all relevant articles, and resulted in 371 documents. To ensure logical consistency and to facilitate global dissemination, documents were filtered to include only those written in English, narrowing the selection to 363 results. English-language papers are preferred due to their greater visibility and impact in the academic community, which increases the likelihood of being cited. Furthermore, many major databases and indices predominantly feature English-language papers, with top journals often enforcing strict peer-review processes to ensure scientific quality and rigor. Bibliometric research often includes only English-language papers, as noted in various studies [65; 66; 67]. The documents were further filtered to retain only those classified as articles, which are reports of original research that can include meta-analysis and vary in length, resulting in 287 documents. In scientometrics, differentiating document types is important because of their specific content and purposes, which can influence citation distributions [68]. To ensure relevance and accuracy, documents published in 2024 were excluded, leaving a final count of 237 articles. These steps were used to narrow down the search and identify the most relevant articles for the bibliometric analysis of artificial intelligence applications in local and regional studies.