Bibliographic database of microcredentials in higher education (2016–2025)

This dataset supports the article Configuration and transformation of the research ecosystem of microcredentials in higher education (2016 to 2025): A systematic review and evolutionary analysis. It contains the bibliographic and analytical records of 166 scientific documents on microcredentials in higher education indexed in Web of Science and Scopus. The corpus was developed through a PRISMA based systematic review process that included identification, screening, eligibility assessment, quality review, cleaning, and normalization of records. The dataset was designed to support bibliometric analysis, semantic mapping, keyword co occurrence analysis, and thematic classification of the research ecosystem on microcredentials. The main CSV file includes metadata such as authors, article title, year of publication, journal or source information, volume, issue, pages, DOI, abstract, keywords, publisher, reference list, country of affiliation, language, and document type. A complementary RIS file is also provided to facilitate reference management, citation export, and verification in bibliographic software. The records were additionally organized according to four non exclusive analytical dimensions: institutional, competency based, industry, and technology. This classification allows researchers to examine how the field has evolved from initial pedagogical approaches toward processes of institutionalization, quality assurance, labor market alignment, technological interoperability, and digital governance in higher education. The dataset may be reused for systematic review verification, bibliometric replication, comparative studies, science mapping, and further research on microcredentials, digital badges, alternative credentials, employability, educational technology, and governance in higher education.