Uso de resumos gráficos baseados em mapas conceituais para apoiar a seleção de estudos primários no processo de revisão sistemática na engenharia de software: replicações de um experimento controlado

Abstract

Background: This study is inserted in Evidence-Based Software Engineering context, specifically in Systematic Literature Review (SLR) thematic, focusing on the studies selecting process. It involves in a first instance the reading of abstract’s studies. Gap: The lack of abstracts quality makes it difficult to select studies, since there is few information to judge the relevance of a study for an SLR. An alternative to improve the abstracts quality is to adopt graphical abstracts. The use of this type of abstracts have been proposed, but only one controlled experiment was executed. Objective: This work aims to perform replications of a controlled experiment using graphical abstracts based on conceptual maps (CM), in order to generate knowledge regarding the use of these abstracts to support studies selection. Method: The same experimental design and materials from the original experiment were adopted. Results: Evidence on the use of graphical abstracts represented by CMs to support the studies selection in the SLR process in Software Engineering was generated. In addition, it was possible to verify that the use of graphic summaries contributes positively to the study selection activity in the SLR process. Conclusion: The use of graphical abstracts tends to improves the performance and effectiveness of the study selection activity, as well as making it more motivating and less tiring.