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The use of systematic reviews in evidence based software engineering: a systematic mapping study

Published: 18 September 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Context. A decade ago, Kitchenham, Dybå and Jørgensen argued that software engineering could benefit from an evidence-based research approach similar that that used in medicine, introducing the basis for Evidence Based Software Engineering (EBSE). Objective. Our main goal is to understand the evolution of the use of systematic reviews as the main research method in EBSE, as proposed by Kitchenham et al., by investigating primary and tertiary studies that explore any aspect, theory, or concept around the use of systematic reviews in software engineering. Method. A systematic mapping study protocol was used to find and selected studies about EBSE and systematic reviews in SE, published between 2004 and 2013. Results. We selected 52 unique papers classified as non-empirical studies (12), empirical studies (31), and tertiary studies (9). Conclusion. SLR has become an important component of software engineering research with nearly 200 unique reviews catalogued by the tertiary studies. Most important limitations are related to the industrial relevance and application of the results of reviews and the poor use of synthesis method to aggregate evidence

References

[1]
Kitchenham, B.; Dybå, T.; Jorgensen, M. Evidence-based Software engineering, in: 26th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), 2004, pp. 273--281.
[2]
Kitchenham, B. and Charters, S. Guidelines for performing systematic literature reviews in software engineering. 2007. Technical Report EBSE-2007-01, School of Computer Science and Mathematics, Keele University.
[3]
da Silva, F. Q. B. et al. Six years of systematic literature reviews in software engineering: An updated tertiary study. Inform Software Tech 53, 899--913
[4]
B. Kitchenham et al., Systematic literature reviews in software engineering -- a systematic literature review, Inform Software Tech 51 (2009), 7--15.
[5]
B. Kitchenham et al., Literature reviews in software engineering -- a tertiary study, Inform Software Tech 52 (8) (2010) 792--805.
[6]
Cruzes, D. S.; Dybå, T. Research synthesis in software engineering: A tertiary study. Inform Software Tech 53 (2011), 440--455
[7]
Kitchenham, B.; Brereton, P. A systematic review of systematic review process research in software engineering. Inform Software Tech 55 (2013) 2049--2075.
[8]
Mendes, E. A systematic review of Web engineering research. ISESE 2005: 498--507.
[9]
Santos, R. E. S., da Silva, F. Q. B. Motivation to Perform Systematic Reviews and their Impact on Software Engineering Practice. ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, pp. 292--295, 2013.
[10]
Santos, Ronnie E. S., da Silva, Fabio Q. B, Magalhães, Cleyton V. C. Appendices of: Ten Years of Evidence Based Software Engineering: A Literature Review. HASE Technical Report No. 2014-001. Available at: http://goo.gl/Z2Llxe

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  • (2018)Supporting Knowledge Transfer From Secondary Studies to Software Engineering PracticeACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes10.1145/3178315.317832543:1(1-6)Online publication date: 28-Mar-2018

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  1. The use of systematic reviews in evidence based software engineering: a systematic mapping study

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    ESEM '14: Proceedings of the 8th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement
    September 2014
    461 pages
    ISBN:9781450327749
    DOI:10.1145/2652524
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Published: 18 September 2014

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    Author Tags

    1. evidence-based software engineering
    2. mapping study
    3. software engineering
    4. systematic literature review

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    • (2024)Nudge Evidence Briefing: A Proposal for Transferring Scientific Knowledge about NudgesProceedings of the XXIII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3702038.3702073(1-11)Online publication date: 7-Oct-2024
    • (2024)Exposing Algorithmic Discrimination and Its Consequences in Modern Society: Insights from a Scoping StudyProceedings of the 46th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society10.1145/3639475.3640098(69-73)Online publication date: 14-Apr-2024
    • (2018)Supporting Knowledge Transfer From Secondary Studies to Software Engineering PracticeACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes10.1145/3178315.317832543:1(1-6)Online publication date: 28-Mar-2018

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