Scientific research ontology to support systematic review in software engineering

The term systematic review is used to refer to a specific methodology of research, developed in order to gather and evaluate the available evidence pertaining to a focused topic. It represents a secondary study that depends on primary study results to be accomplished. Several primary studies have been conducted in the field of Software Engineering in the last years, determining an increasing improvement in methodology. However, in most cases software is built with technologies and processes for which developers have insufficient evidence to confirm their suitability, limits, qualities, costs, and inherent risks. Conducting systematic reviews in Software Engineering consists in a major methodological tool to scientifically improve the validity of assertions that can be made in the field and, as a consequence, the reliability degree of the methods that are employed for developing software technologies and supporting software processes. This paper aims at discussing the significance of experimental studies, particularly systematic reviews, and their use in supporting software processes. A template designed to support systematic reviews in Software Engineering is presented, and the development of ontologies to describe knowledge regarding such experimental studies is also introduced. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.