A systematic mapping on the use of visual data mining to support the conduct of systematic literature reviews

A systematic literature review (SLR) is a methodology used to find and aggregate all relevant existing evidence about a specific research question of interest. Important decisions need to be made at several points in the review process, relating to search of the literature, selection of relevant primary studies and use of methods of synthesis. Visualization can support tasks that involve large collections of data, such as the studies collected, evaluated and summarized in an SLR. The objective of this paper is to present the results of a systematic mapping study (SM) conducted to collect and evaluate evidence on the use of a specific visualization technique, visual data mining (VDM), to support the SLR process. We reviewed 20 papers and our results indicate a scarcity of research on the use of VDM to help with conducting SLRs in the software engineering domain. However, most of the studies (16 of the 20 studies included in our mapping) have been conducted in the field of medicine and they revealed that the activities of data extraction and data synthesis, related to conducting the review phase of an SLR process, have more VDM support than other activities. In contrast, according to our SM, previous studies using VDM techniques with SLRs have not employed such techniques during the SLR’s planning and reporting phases

Tool support for systematic reviews in software engineering

Background: Systematic reviews have become an established methodology in software engineering. However, they are labour intensive, error prone and time consuming. These and other challenges have led to the development of tools to support the process. However, there is limited evidence about their usefulness. Aim: To investigate the usefulness of tools to support systematic reviews in software engineering and develop an evaluation framework for an overall support tool. Method: A literature review, taking the form of a mapping study, was undertaken to identify and classify tools supporting systematic reviews in software engineering. Motivated by its results, a feature analysis was performed to independently compare and evaluate a selection of tools which aimed to support the whole systematic review process. An initial version of an evaluation framework was developed to carry out the feature analysis and later refined based on its results. To obtain a deeper understanding of the technology, a survey was undertaken to explore systematic review tools in other domains. Semi-structured interviews with researchers in healthcare and social science were carried out. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected, analysed and used to further refine the framework. Results: The literature review showed an encouraging growth of tools to support systematic reviews in software engineering, although many had received limited evaluation. The feature analysis provided new insight into the usefulness of tools, determined the strongest and weakest candidate and established the feasibility of an evaluation framework. The survey provided knowledge about tools used in other domains, which helped further refine the framework. Conclusions: Tools to support systematic reviews in software engineering are still immature. Their potential, however, remains high and it is anticipated that the need for tools within the community will increase. The evaluation framework presented aims to support the future development, assessment and selection of appropriate tools

A systematic review of systematic review process in software engineering

ContextMany researchers adopting systematic reviews (SRs) have also published papers discussing problems with the SR methodology and suggestions for improving it. Since guidelines for SRs in software engineering (SE) were last updated in 2007, we believe it is time to investigate whether the guidelines need to be amended in the light of recent research.ObjectiveTo identify, evaluate and synthesize research published by software engineering researchers concerning their experiences of performing SRs and their proposals for improving the SR process.MethodWe undertook a systematic review of papers reporting experiences of undertaking SRs and/or discussing techniques that could be used to improve the SR process. Studies were classified with respect to the stage in the SR process they addressed, whether they related to education or problems faced by novices and whether they proposed the use of textual analysis tools.ResultsWe identified 68 papers reporting 63 unique studies published in SE conferences and journals between 2005 and mid-2012. The most common criticisms of SRs were that they take a long time, that SE digital libraries are not appropriate for broad literature searches and that assessing the quality of empirical studies of different types is difficult.ConclusionWe recommend removing advice to use structured questions to construct search strings and including advice to use a quasi-gold standard based on a limited manual search to assist the construction of search stings and evaluation of the search process. Textual analysis tools are likely to be useful for inclusion/exclusion decisions and search string construction but require more stringent evaluation. SE researchers would benefit from tools to manage the SR process but existing tools need independent validation. Quality assessment of studies using a variety of empirical methods remains a major problem

Exploring Barriers to Women Entrepreneurs in Enugu State, Nigeria

Women play an important role in the development of their families and communities economically; however, in comparison to men, they disproportionately experience barriers such as low income households, poverty, unemployment, lack of training, and discrimination. The purpose of this mini-ethnographic case study was to explore the perceptions of women entrepreneurs in Enugu State, Nigeria on what information they need to overcome possible barriers in their business and economic development. The 5M (market, money, management, motherhood, meso, and microenvironment) framework provided the theoretical lens for this investigation. The data gathering process involved face-to-face semistructured interviews with 15 women entrepreneurs in 3 local markets in Enugu State, in addition to direct observation, field notes, and reflective journal entries. Data were inductively analyzed and then triangulated to ensure trustworthiness of findings. The major themes revealed that these women needed information in the areas of marketing, customer relations, accounting procedures, financing strategies, and formal business training to grow their businesses. Embracing the results of this research may contribute to positive social change by providing information on how small scale women entrepreneurs could reduce their dependence on their husbands, partners, and relatives

The employment of sex-related taboos and corresponding euphemisms in Arabic among Jordanian university students

This study aims to examine the extent to which Jordanian university students use positive and negative euphemism to address the problematic references of the taboo language in sex-related topics, namely sexual organs, sexual intercourse, and illegitimate sex relations. It also aims to shed light on certain aspects of this existence such as the formation processes of the various types of euphemisms and the extent to which Jordanian university students observe Grice‟s maxims of conversation or flout them. The theoretical framework used in this research is based on the following theories; the Politeness theory proposed by Brown and Levinson in 1987 and Grice's Co-operative principle and the Maxims of conversation in 1975. This study followed a mixed-methods approach, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The variables selected for this study are divided into two main categories: independent variable (gender) and dependent variable (the use of euphemisms by Jordanian university students). The current study found that Jordanian university students (male/female) slightly used taboo language to a certain extent. It was also found that the euphemisms‟ formation processes proposed by Farghal‟s model in 1995 are used by Jordanian university students, especially figurative speech and Euphemizers devices. The study has further revealed that Farghal‟s model is incapable of accounting for all euphemisms‟ formation devices employed by Jordanian university students. As a result, a modified version of Farghal‟s model was formulated by the researcher. The study also found that the euphemisms of sex-related topics, namely sexual organs, sexual intercourse, and illegitimate sex relations used by Jordanian university students (male/female) flout two of Grice‟s maxims of conversation, namely the maxim of quality and the maxim of manner. Finally, the findings of this study demonstrated that gender is slightly influential in terms of the Jordanian students‟ use of positive euphemism