Session identification techniques used in web usage mining : A systematic mapping of scholarly literature

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the state-of-the-art session identification techniques used in web usage mining (WUM) process in terms of their limitations, features, and methodologies. Design/methodology/approach In this research, systematic literature review has been conducted using review protocol approach. The methodology consisted of a comprehensive search for relevant literature over the period of 2005-2015, using four online database repositories (i.e. IEEE, Springer, ACM Digital Library, and ScienceDirect). Findings The findings revealed that this research area is still immature and existing literature lacks the critical review of recent session identification techniques used in WUM process. Originality/value The contribution of this study is to provide a structured overview of the research developments, to critically review the existing session identification techniques, highlight their limitations and associated challenges and identify areas where further improvements are required so as to complement the performance of existing techniques.