Conducting Systematic Literature Reviews and Systematic Mapping Studies
Balbir S. Barn, Souvik Barat, Tony Clark · 2017
Context: An essential part of conducting software engineering (SE) research is the ability to identify extant research on tools, technologies, concepts and methods in order to evaluate and make rational and scientific decisions. The domain from which such knowledge is extracted is typically existing research literature found in journals, conference proceedings, books and gray literature. Empirical approaches that include various systematic review (SR) methodologies such as systematic literature review (SLR) and systematic mapping study (SMS) are found to be effective in this context. They adopt rigorous planning, follow repeatable and well-defined processes, and produce unbiased and evidence-based outcomes. Despite these significant benefits, the general trend on using these systematic review (SR) methodologies is not encouraging in SE research. The primary reasons emerging are twofold - a) SR methodologies are largely cited as time-consuming activities and b) lack of guidance to conduct systematic reviews. This tutorial discusses these concerns and describes an effective way of using SR methodologies for SE research.