Developing search strategies for detecting relevant experiments

Abstract:

Our goal is to analyze the optimality of search strategies for use in systematic reviews of software engineering experiments. Studies retrieval is an important problem in any evidence-based discipline. This question has not been examined for evidence-based software engineering as yet. We have run several searches exercising different terms denoting experiments to evaluate their recall and precision. Based on our evaluation, we propose using a high recall strategy when there are plenty of resources or the results need to be exhaustive. For any other case, we propose optimal, or even acceptable, search strategies. As a secondary goal, we have analysed trends and weaknesses in terminology used in articles reporting software engineering experiments. We have found that it is impossible for a search strategy to retrieve 100% of the experiments of interest (as happens in other experimental disciplines), because of the shortage of reporting standards in the community. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Año de publicación:

2009

Keywords:

• Evidence-based software engineering
• Systematic Review
• Controlled experiment

Fuente:

scopus