Teaching Literature Reviewing for Software Engineering Research

TL;DR

The chapter addresses teaching literature reviewing in software engineering by framing literature reviews within primary, secondary, and tertiary research and stressing rigorous secondary methods. It presents a taxonomy of seven review types (ad hoc, meta-analysis, meta-synthesis, case survey, critical review, scoping review, rapid review) and guidance on selecting among them. Practical guidelines cover the literature-review process, screening and reflection, method-specific recommendations, and evaluation criteria, with an emphasis on case surveys as the most tractable option for SE students. The work also discusses challenges in meta-analytic and meta-synthetic work in SE and provides checklists and anti-patterns to help teachers design effective literature-review curricula.

Abstract

The goal of this chapter is to support teachers in holistically introducing graduate students to literature reviews, with a particular focus on secondary research. It provides an overview of the overall literature review process and the different types of literature review before diving into guidelines for selecting and conducting different types of literature review. The chapter also provides recommendations for evaluating the quality of existing literature reviews and concludes with a summary of our learning goals and how the chapter supports teachers in addressing them.

Figures (1)

• Figure 1: Process of selecting literature review types at different stages of a research project.