Mapping information technology in vegetable crop research, 1990–2025: a scoping review — protocol

Protocol of a scoping review (PRISMA-ScR), deposited before screening. The review maps the pervasiveness of information technology (IT) in vegetable crop research published from 1990 to 2025. It quantifies the share of vegetable crop studies in which IT is the object of the research (characterising use) rather than a tool (instrumental use), describes how this share has changed over time, and maps IT functions (e.g. sensing/IoT, remote sensing, computer vision, robotics, climate and fertigation control, lighting control, crop modelling, decision support systems, AI/ML) across cropping systems (open field, greenhouse, soilless, indoor/vertical farming) and maturity levels. Sources: Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection and OpenAlex. The protocol follows the 65 items of the Generalized Systematic Review Registration Form (van den Akker et al., 2023). Appendices: study design, species list and search blocks, ready-to-paste search strings (frozen v2.2), rater agreement and coding protocol, denominator precision plan, and the codebook for raters (frozen v0).