Tools to Support Systematic Literature Reviews in Software Engineering: A Mapping Study

Abstract

Background: Systematic literature reviews (SLRs) have become an established methodology in software engineering (SE) research however they can be very time consuming and error prone. Aim: The aims of this study are to identify and classify tools that can help to automate part or all of the SLR process within the SE domain. Method: A mapping study was performed using an automated search strategy plus snowballing to locate relevant papers. A set of known papers was used to validate the search string. Results: 14 papers were accepted into the final set. Eight presented text mining tools and six discussed the use of visualisation techniques. The stage most commonly targeted was study selection. Only two papers reported an independent evaluation of the tool presented. The majority were evaluated through small experiments and examples of their use. Conclusions: A variety of tools are available to support the SLR process although many are in the early stages of development and usage.