# Guidelines for the Search Strategy to Update Systematic Literature Reviews in Software Engineering

**Authors:** Claes Wohlin, Emilia Mendes, Katia Romero Felizardo, Marcos Kalinowski  
**arXiv:** [2006.05542](https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.05542)  
**Date:** 2020-06-09  
**Summary page:** https://www.summarizepaper.com/en/arxiv-id/2006.05542v1/

## Key points

- The paper addresses the issue of outdated Systematic Literature Reviews (SLRs) in Software Engineering (SE)
- SLRs are widely used in SE to provide comprehensive summaries of evidence on various topics
- Existing SLRs are often not up-to-date and lack standard proposals on how to update them
- The objective of the paper is to propose guidelines for effectively searching for new evidence when updating SLRs in SE
- Different search strategies are compared and discussed, including forward snowballing with Google Scholar using the original SLR and its primary studies as a seed set
- Involving multiple researchers in the selection process based on inclusion and exclusion criteria is emphasized
- The guidelines were evaluated using an SLR in software ecosystems, its update, and a replication
- Results suggest that the proposed guidelines are cost-effective and should be adopted for updating SLRs in SE
- The guidelines were further supported when applied to an SLR in software ecosystems along with its update and replication
- Following these guidelines ensures that literature reviews remain up-to-date and provide meaningful summaries of evidence on various topics within Software Engineering.

## Summary

The paper titled "Guidelines for the Search Strategy to Update Systematic Literature Reviews in Software Engineering" by Claes Wohlin, Emilia Mendes, Katia Romero Felizardo, and Marcos Kalinowski addresses the issue of outdated Systematic Literature Reviews (SLRs) in the field of Software Engineering (SE). SLRs have been widely used in SE to provide comprehensive summaries of evidence on various topics. However, many existing SLRs are not up-to-date and there is a lack of standard proposals on how to update them. The objective of this paper is to propose guidelines for effectively searching for new evidence when updating SLRs in SE. The authors compare and discuss different search strategies applied to identify primary studies in a published SLR, an SLR update, and two replications related to effort estimation. These guidelines are then evaluated using an SLR in the area of software ecosystems, its update, and a replication. The results suggest that using a single iteration forward snowballing approach with Google Scholar and employing the original SLR and its primary studies as a seed set is the most cost-effective method for searching new evidence during SLR updates. Additionally, the importance of involving multiple researchers in the selection process based on inclusion and exclusion criteria is emphasized. Based on their findings from an effort estimation SLR, its update, and two replications, the authors propose that these guidelines should be adopted for updating SLRs in SE. The guidelines were further supported when applied to an SLR in the area of software ecosystems along with its update and replication. Overall, this paper provides valuable insights into how to effectively search for evidence when updating SLRs in SE. By following these proposed guidelines researchers can ensure that their literature reviews remain up-to-date and provide meaningful summaries of evidence on various topics within Software Engineering.