Paving the Way for Mature Secondary Research: The Seven Types of Literature Review

TL;DR

This paper clarifies the seven main types of secondary research in software engineering, providing definitions and guidelines to improve their selection, description, and evaluation.

Contribution

It offers a clear taxonomy of literature review types with guidelines, addressing confusion and enhancing the quality of secondary research in software engineering.

Findings

Defines seven types of secondary research

Provides guidelines for selecting and describing review types

Aims to improve review quality and evaluation

Abstract

Confusion over different kinds of secondary research, and their divergent purposes, is undermining the effectiveness and usefulness of secondary studies in software engineering. This short paper therefore explains the differences between ad hoc review, case survey, critical review, meta-analysis (aka systematic literature review), meta-synthesis (aka thematic analysis), rapid review and scoping review (aka systematic mapping study). These definitions and associated guidelines help researchers better select and describe their literature reviews, while helping reviewers select more appropriate evaluation criteria.