Challenges and pitfalls on surveying evidence in the software engineering technical literature: an exploratory study with novices

Ribeiro, Talita Vieira; Massollar, Jobson; Travassos, Guilherme Horta

doi:10.1007/s10664-017-9556-7

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…At that moment, most of them have not still defined the exact topic of their project and sometimes have little knowledge of the topic that will be possibly researched. However, conducting high-quality SLR requires a deeper knowledge of the research topic [24]. To mitigate this lack, we recommend students have the support of more experienced researchers such as their supervisors to assure the quality of the SLR.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benefits and Drawbacks of a Graduate Course: An Experience Teaching Systematic Literature Review

Iwazaki¹,

Santos²,

Felizardo³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Graduate subjects (or courses) are commonly offered in graduate courses and can provide specialized knowledge of different topics that are important for the formation of Ph.D. and Master's students. At the same time, Systematic Literature Review (SLR) has been increasingly adopted in the computing area as a research method to synthesize the state of the art of a given research topic, identify research groups working on that topic, understand the existing limitations and research gaps, and also identify new research directions. However, it is still not well understood the real benefits and drawbacks of offering a subject that addresses SLR for graduate students. Moreover, it is not known the difficulties faced by professors (i.e., educators) to teach this subject. The main goal of this work is to present an experience report of teaching SLR, in particular, the benefits and drawbacks of this subject for computer science graduate students. In addition, this work also presents the essential topics of SLR that we recommend to be taught and a better way to teach them, aiming at supporting graduate courses to offer it. For this, we surveyed computer science graduate students who attended the SLR subject that was taught for almost ten years in our institutions. In particular, we collected the lessons learned, findings, and insights; following, we summarized the benefits and drawbacks for students, the difficulties for professors, and also those essential topics to be taught. As a main result, the SLR subject can be considered a valuable opportunity for graduate students that could use this subject to conduct the required deep literature review of their research topic and have a better comprehension of their research area. Besides and more importantly, this subject can improve important research skills of students, including the ability to recognize research problems, analyze and synthesize data, think critically, and write papers. Therefore, we believe that graduate courses should analyze the possibility of offering the SLR subject.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benefits and Drawbacks of a Graduate Course: An Experience Teaching Systematic Literature Review

Iwazaki¹,

Santos²,

Felizardo³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…• S28 -Ribeiro et al [39] mention that if similar SLR protocols are executed by similar teams of Masters and Ph.D. students, they should lead to equivalent answers for the same research question. The outcomes were different and six challenges contributing to the divergences, e.g., researchers' inexperience in the topic and researchers' inexperience in the method, among others.…”

Section: Purposes Of Ebse In An Academic Context (Rq2)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Total of studies -Studies ID (P1) Lacking of domain knowledge 2 -S9 [24]; S28 [39] (P2) Lacking of SLR/SM process knowledge 1 -S28 [39] (P3) Developing the protocol is longer than expected 5 -S6 [21]; S9 [24]; S10 [7]; S21 [8]; S23 [35] (P4) Defining research questions 4 -S9 [24]; S10 [7]; S16 [29]; S21 [8] (P5) Finding synonyms and keywords 5 -S10 [7]; S13 [27]; S16 [29]; S21 [8]; S28 [39] (P6) Searching the literature 9 -S5 [20]; S9 [24]; S11 [25]; S12 [26]; S13 [27]; S16 [29]; S18 [31]; S19 [32]; S23 [35] (P7) Defining and applying the inclusion/exclusion criteria 9 -S6 [21]; S10 [7]; S12 [26]; S13 [27]; S14 [28]; S16 [29]; S19 [32]; S21 [8]; S27 [38] (P8) Appraising the evidence for its validity 4 -S5 [20]; S16 [29]; S18 [31]; S27 [38] (P9) Extracting data 5 -S14 [28]; S15 [12]; S16 [29]; S21 [8]; S23 [35] (P10) Classifying the l...…”

Section: Problems (P)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…• S28 -Ribeiro et al [39] Application of secondary studies in real projects: Only 1 study (3.5%) discussed how the findings of a secondary study guided research efforts.…”

Section: Purposes Of Ebse In An Academic Context (Rq2)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We can notice that studies involving undergraduate students (12 (42.8%) -S1 [16]; S2 [17]; S3 [18]; S5 [20]; S6 [21]; S12 [26]; S13 [27]; S14 [28]; S20 [33]; S21 [8]; S22 [34]; S25 [37]) have the largest representativeness. The other two categories related to students were: • Master students (11 (39.2%) -S4 [19]; S7 [22]; S8 [23]; S16 [29]; S17 [30]; S18 [31]; S23 [35]; S25 [37]; S26 [9]; S27 [38]; S28 [39]); and • Ph.D. students (8 (28.5%) -S9 [24]; S10 [7]; S12 [26]; S15 [12]; S16 [29]; S24 [36]; S27 [38]; S28 [39]). Only 4 studies (14.2%) assessed the use of EBSE by SLR experts (S10 [7]; S11 [25]; S15 [12]; S19 [32]).…”

Section: Purposes Of Ebse In An Academic Context (Rq2)mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Secondary studies in the academic context: A systematic mapping and survey

Felizardo

Souza

Vijaykumar

et al. 2020

Journal of Systems and Software

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Context: Several researchers have reported their experiences in applying secondary studies (Systematic Literature Reviews-SLRs and Systematic Mappings-SMs) in Software Engineering (SE). However, there is still a lack of studies discussing the value of performing secondary studies in an academic context. Goal: The main goal of this study is to provide an overview on the use of secondary studies in an academic context. Method: Two empirical research methods were used. Initially, we conducted an SM to identify the available and relevant studies on the use of secondary studies as a research methodology for conducting SE research projects. Secondly,

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Training students in evidence-based software engineering and systematic reviews: a systematic review and empirical study

et al. 2021

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Challenges and pitfalls on surveying evidence in the software engineering technical literature: an exploratory study with novices

Cited by 10 publications

References 34 publications

Benefits and Drawbacks of a Graduate Course: An Experience Teaching Systematic Literature Review

Benefits and Drawbacks of a Graduate Course: An Experience Teaching Systematic Literature Review

Secondary studies in the academic context: A systematic mapping and survey

Training students in evidence-based software engineering and systematic reviews: a systematic review and empirical study

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