Evidence-Based Software Engineering
Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Software Engineering
Evidence-Based Software Engineering for Practitioners
IEEE Software
The Future of Empirical Methods in Software Engineering Research
FOSE '07 2007 Future of Software Engineering
Applying Systematic Reviews to Diverse Study Types: An Experience Report
ESEM '07 Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement
Using Context Distance Measurement to Analyze Results across Studies
ESEM '07 Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement
Extracting Information from Experimental Software Engineering Papers
SCCC '07 Proceedings of the XXVI International Conference of the Chilean Society of Computer Science
Research synthesis in software engineering: A tertiary study
Information and Software Technology
A visual analysis approach to validate the selection review of primary studies in systematic reviews
Information and Software Technology
Information and Software Technology
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
Synthesizing the evidence from a set of studies that spans many countries and years, and that incorporates a wide variety of research methods and theoretical perspectives, is probably the single most challenging task of performing a systematic review. In this paper, we perform a tertiary review to assess the types and methods of research synthesis in systematic reviews in software engineering. Almost half of the 31 studies included in our review did not contain any synthesis; of the ones that did, two thirds performed a narrative or a thematic synthesis. The results show that, despite the focus on systematic reviews, there is, currently, limited attention to research synthesis in software engineering. This needs to change and a repertoire of synthesis methods needs to be an integral part of systematic reviews to increase their significance and utility for research and practice.