Preliminary guidelines for empirical research in software engineering

  • Authors:

  • Barbara A. Kitchenham;Shari Lawrence Pfleeger;Lesley M. Pickard;Peter W. Jones;David C. Hoaglin;Khaled El Emam;Jarrett Rosenberg

  • Affiliations:

  • Computer Science Department, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK;RAND Corporation, 1200 South Hayes St., Arlington, VA;Computer Science Department, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK;Mathematics Department, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK;Abt Associates Inc., 55 Wheeler Street, Cambridge, MA;National Research Council of Canada Institute for Information Technology, Montreal Road, Building M-50 Ottowa, Ontario, K1J 8H5 Canada;Sun Microsystems, San Antonio Road, MS MPK17-307 Palo Alto, CA

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

Empirical software engineering research needs research guidelines to improve the research and reporting processes. We propose a preliminary set of research guidelines aimed at stimulating discussion among software researchers. They are based on a review of research guidelines developed for medical researchers and on our own experience in doing and reviewing software engineering research. The guidelines are intended to assist researchers, reviewers, and meta-analysts in designing, conducting, and evaluating empirical studies. Editorial boards of software engineering journals may wish to use our recommendations as a basis for developing guidelines for reviewers and for framing policies for dealing with the design, data collection, and analysis and reporting of empirical studies.